Shards of Obsession
by Vrock8
Summary: Pazuzu slowly corrupts Gensokyo. Will cute innocent girls win a hopeless fight against such a powerful and ancient evil? Violence, character death. Hatefic.
1. Adventure

**Disclaimer:** Touhou is owned by ZUN in conjunction with Team Shanghai Alice. Pazuzu was created by ancient Assyrians and re-imagined by Wizards of the Coast. My version of depicting him is inaccurate.

**Shard 1: Adventure**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

A small globe floats through the void, slowly rotating in silence. Lights dance on the liquid surface, multicolored shifting lights. Inside there are mountains and rivers, land and sky, people and gods, happiness and sadness. A persistent thought, a dream, a world. Gensokyo.

The globe floats, on and on, through liquid spinning wheels and geometry shapes of the boiling chaos around. It has no direction, no purpose, it just moves, because life is in movement. Life is in change, in flaws, in impurities.

The world floats, and the chaos around starts to disperse. The globe reaches an edge of a plain, a smooth reflective plain made of anthracite interlocking plates. The chaos is pressed away from it, and in the distance lines of ziggurats lead to a humongous spiraling tower.

And at the edge of the plain a figure stands, a crooked, misshapen figure, four stumps at its back, stumps of destroyed wings. It raises its right arm as if in greeting, and the world moves closer, flowing, rotating, a constant change, a never ending change.

The broken creature reaches forward and catches the globe, closing the black talons on it, scratching it, breaking the surface. Darkness, oily darkness starts pouring inside. Soon the world will become perfect, perfection and stillness of death solidified in eternity.

The final cycle begins.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"Yukari-sama, is everything all right? It took me a while to find you…"

Ran Yakumo, the fox-tailed shikigami, or a guardian youkai for short gently touched down to the side of her mistress. Yukari was sitting cross-legged on the grass, twirling her intricate parasol and staring somewhere in the distance. The top of the grassy hill offered a quite a good view on the main valley of Gensokyo, and as usual for the late summer the valley looked vibrant and fresh, flower fields creating patches of color on the green carpet of forests yet untouched by yellow.

Yukari slightly turned, examining Ran with indifference. The shikigami flinched a little and took her usual pose, hiding her hands in the sleeves of her long white dress. She expected to be shouted at, but Yukari slowly turned back to her Gensokyo-gazing.

They spent a while in silence. The wind picked up, a small red ribbon in Yukari's hat flopped a bit and she adjusted it. A small cloud covered the sun.

"Yukari-sama, I am sorry for asking but is something bothering you?"

"I'm bored, that's it," Yukari said and made a gesture covering the valley below. "Everything is so… placid. Don't you agree?"

Ran tried to find the right words. It was her job and, cliché as it sounds, the meaning of her life to protect Yukari from all threats, including the ones the elder gap youkai would invent for herself because of her boredom. An idea that would lead to an "incident" was something she would not want to be responsible for.

"Yukari-sama, if you are bored we could just go and meet some people, talk to—"

"What of that mountain ridge?" Yukari suddenly asked, and stood up, turning to Ran and closing her parasol. Ran held her pose, and glanced at the ridge in question. It was nearly on the horizon, the largest peak being the Youkai Mountain and the smaller crags stretching down the western side of the valley.

"It's… grey, I guess?" she carefully said.

"Exactly!" Yukari exclaimed and rubbed her palms in anticipation. "It's the most boring sight in Gensokyo, so let's renovate! Any suggestions?"

Ran felt relieved. At least they wouldn't be wrecking any fates today, just a little landscaping. Not that bad after all.

"Yukari-sama, I don't think it would be wise to reshape it completely. Let's just add a little color…"

Ran stumbled on the word. She wanted to suggest green, pine trees that would liven up the monotony both in summer and winter, but the thought slipped, and her mind went blank for a second.

Then a featureless voice put a quiet suggestion in her head, a splendid, logical idea.

"…yellow, maybe?" Ran finished, and the voice was gone in an instant, just like it never existed. Maybe it never did.

Yukari chuckled. "Well, of course you would suggest yellow, who would have doubted that, you yellow, yellow fox. But you know, today I'm just in the mood. So, let's do this!"

She spread her arms, and a small gap appeared in front of her. Ran averted her eyes from all the things and eyes that writhed within the gap and saw the reality to tear in the middle of the ridge, something bright and yellow slowly being pushed out. It looked triangular in shape, and after a few moments settled in, a tiny cloud of dust around its base.

The enormous gap on the ridge closed, and so did the smaller one in front of Yukari. She turned and looked at Ran questioningly, expecting a reaction.

"It looks magnificent, Yukari-sama," Ran said, squinting to see what was pulled out from the outer world this time. From such a great distance, it looked no more than a bright gleaming piece of cheese.

"Thank you," Yukari said, slightly out of breath. She opened her parasol again and sat down, admiring her work.

And the day went on, the residents of Gensokyo unaware of what horror they would have to experience pretty soon because of that innocent-looking yellow triangle.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The Hakurei shrine has always been an uninviting, run-down building. Even after it was destroyed multiple times and rebuilt anew, it mysteriously and quickly returned to its usual, nearly crumbling look and demeanor. Yet another mystery of Gensokyo that would never be solved.

Well, if one would seek a logical explanation for this mystery then Reimu Hakurei, the one and only priestess of the shrine provided an easy and obvious solution by being extremely lazy and slow when it came to menial work and repairs. Even now, when she had to sweep the courtyard from dead leaves that for some reason littered it despite the late August, she did so with the posture and movements of a convict laborer.

"Wheee~!"

This happy shout came from a girl in black, who tore into courtyard from the surrounding bamboo forest. She was riding the broom, holding her pointy hat with one hand and waving for the shrine maiden with the other.

"Hey, Marisa…" Reimu started, but the broom-mounted girl whizzed past her, creating a spiral of fluttering leaves behind her. She attempted to land, skidding down and stopping in front of the donation box, and as a completion of her movement she dropped a coin in it. She then turned and faced Reimu, smiling broadly.

"Reimu, I am so happy to see you today, ze~!" she announced, and walked closed, spreading her arms wide for a hug. Reimu demonstratively turned away and continued sweeping, or rather, continued to make it look like she was sweeping.

Marisa stopped. "Oh, come on, what did I do this time?"

"Nothing. It's just you are obviously want me to go somewhere with you on adventure, and I am busy with my preparations for the flower festival next week."

Marisa, wide eyed, slowly circled around Reimu, examining her. Reimu stopped sweeping, and Marisa picked up Reimu's sleeve and looked under it.

"What are you doing?" Reimu asked in annoyance.

"I'm looking for a third eye you have developed while I was not looking. Because you obviously can read minds now."

Reimu sighed. "I can't read minds, Marisa. You are wearing your thick combat apron, you donated three times as usual and you are smiling like Cirno. I am capable of connecting two dots with a line."

"But it will be so fun! You see, there is that huge golden pyramid that just popped out in the mountains, and I am going out to explore it. Come on, just like old times…"

She made an amusing begging face, but Reimu just snorted. "Yeah, right. Me, Reimu of the Hakurei shrine, the guardian of Gensokyo going to plunder a pyramid. You know how they say, you raid one tomb…"

Marisa scratched under her hat. "I'm pretty sure the saying involved goats… whatever. If you don't want to, I'm going by myself."

She turned to leave, but Reimu caught her sleeve. "Don't be like that. And don't go alone, it's dangerous. I mean it."

Marisa slumped, not turning back. "Yeah… you know… ah, forget it, everything's fine. I'll drop by tomorrow and tell you how it went."

Reimu released her arm and Marisa picked up her broom, turned to Reimu and grinned. "Unless I step into an insidious trap left by an insane pyramid architect and my head gets lopped off by a golden wall scythe, ze~."

"Not funny."

"Or, even better, if I fall into a pit, and my slender body gets punctured dozens of times by splintered spikes coated in deadly venom…"

Reimu groaned, shaking her head and furiously sweeping, trying her hardest to not to imagine all the horrible things Marisa painted before her. From flame jets and sand-filled rooms to something completely ridiculous, like frescoes of yawning soul-sucking demons or tanks full of electric eels.

"Just go away already!" Reimu snapped, and raised her broom to chase Marisa away. The witch chuckled for one last time and took off, shouting "Don't cry when you cradle my lifeless gear-crushed body!" instead of goodbye.

"If you don't get back safe, I'm going to kill you myself!" Reimu shouted at her. Marisa disappeared in the forest, happily laughing.

Reimu shook her head. She did not doubt for a single moment that Marisa is going to come back safe, if a bit frustrated by not finding any deadly traps or treasure. Yukari never pulled anything dangerous into Gensokyo on her memory, so why she would do so this time?

She returned to sweeping the courtyard, forgetting about Marisa and her pyramid quest soon enough.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Marisa went for an obvious choice and took Nitori with her. It was on the way after all, and it always took ages for Alice to prepare her dolls and warding spells. The kappa just nodded and stuck some devices into her bulging backpack, and they were all set.

Marisa took point, and Nitori flew silently behind her, her wide blue dress not even fluttering because of all the heavy tools that weighted the pockets at the fringe of it. The pyramid was rather far away, and Marisa quickly grew bored from the silence.

"So, Nitori, been a while, hasn't it? How's life?" she asked, slightly turning. The kappa averted her eyes.

"I… normal, I guess. Doing projects and inventing things…"

"Ooh, projects. What's your latest one?"

"It's… well, you probably won't understand. It involves infrasound and ergoline extracts… I'm experimenting with detachment of subconscious…"

Marisa slowed down and shifted to the side to match her air speed with Nitori. "Oh, come on, you don't have to be so shy around me, I won't point and laugh. And besides, I experiment with weird stuff myself, mushrooms and… well, mushrooms, mostly."

Nitori looked at Marisa and forced a smile. "Really? Can we… exchange notes, maybe?"

Marisa clapped her on the shoulder. "Sure we can, ze~! If I don't forget that is, so bug me about it. And you should totally visit and help me with plumbing and storm drains and I'll give you some tips on unconventional power sources."

Nitori's smile became more real. She still wasn't used to being around humans, but this one was very helpful and non-threatening, unlike Reimu, for example. She decided to indeed visit sometime soon, maybe next month.

They flew in silence for a while, and reached their destination, a golden stepped pyramid firmly clasped by jagged rocks around it. Well, up close it didn't look like a traditional pyramid and of course it was not plated in solid gold.

It was a massive structure made from polished sandstone, and it would be most accurate to call it a ziggurat. The pyramid had three terraces, and four wide stone staircases led to the enclosed rectangular shrine at the top. The stone was smooth, bearing no frescoes or murals.

"Woah, that's a lot of steps," Marisa commented on the obvious. "It's a good thing we can fly right to the top, eh?"

Nitori didn't respond, and they made a circle around the top before landing on the upper terrace. The stone felt warm and almost inaudibly hummed. Marisa whistled and drew her spell furnace. It glowed slightly and hummed in unison with the stone.

"That's a lot of power here, a bit scary even. Well, probably an aftereffect of the gap transfer, nothing to worry about. Let's start exploring, shall we?"

Nitori nodded, and pulled something out of the one of her many pockets. None of her devices ever made sense to Marisa, so the witch started traversing the steps up to the shrine, leaving Nitori behind.

She entered a small square room at the top of the ziggurat. A single slab of stone was in the middle of it. Marisa half-expected to see bones and dried blood here but no, the altar was smooth and clean, and just as clean were the braziers around it. This place definitely was never used for human sacrifice or any other religious rites for that matter.

Marisa sighed in disappointment. Yukari most likely brought in some museum exhibit and magnified it to look cool. This place probably didn't even have interior chambers, and she could forget about secret passages and treasure. What a waste of energy and time.

A loud beeping from outside caught her attention and she peered out. Nitori was near an unassuming part of terrace wall, moving her device in front of it in circles. The device beeped, and she looked rather nervous.

"So, found anything?" Marisa called out and Nitori nodded to her. Marisa grinned and ran down a flight of stairs. "Is it a secret door? Just like in books, it has to be a secret door!"

She ran to the wall and excitedly started to feel it around, searching for a hidden switch. Nitori took a step back.

"Um… actually my device only shows that there is a cavity behind this wall, it could be anyth—"

She abruptly stopped when she saw Marisa pulling out her octagonal weapon. "I don't think it is a good idea."

"Ha! A mere wall can not stop me! There are riches to be plundered and ancient secrets to be revealed! Stand back and behold my Master Spark!"

Nitori yelped and quickly positioned herself behind Marisa. The witch took a step back and threw her arms forward, unleashing a brilliant white beam into the wall at an angle. Most of it was reflected from the smooth stone, but there was also a resounding boom and the wall crumbled, revealing a long passage that led somewhere into the depths of the structure.

The spell ended and Marisa blew away the smoke from an opening in her tiny furnace. "And that's how it's done. Come on, let's start our adventure."

They stepped inside, and the pyramid greeted them with dust and darkness. Nitori rummaged through her backpack and produced a thin device that created a cone of light, and Marisa created a minor light spell of her own.

They soon discovered they were in a literal labyrinth of identical intersecting corridors. Nitori started marking the intersections with a glowing paint, but they made a few large circles nevertheless. Eventually they found a staircase down and stopped.

"Wow, this place is huge," Marisa said, leaning to a wall. "And this is just the upper level, if it is like this all the way down we could spend till sundown in here, if not longer. So, the question is: got any food?"

"I brought some with me, yes," Nitori answered. It became a bit easier for her to talk, as she slowly got used to this strange loud-mouthed human.

She put her backpack down and opened it, pulling out some apples, cucumbers and two flasks of water. Marisa snatched an apple and bit into it. She washed it down with water Nitori helpfully provided and wiped her mouth.

"Phew. I never thought I was so hungry, so thanks. Now, let's explore another level and call it a day. I've decided to not spend the night in this dusty ancient closet."

She waited for Nitori to pack her bag and descended down the stairs. The middle level was mostly the same, corridors upon corridors. This time, the girls found the stairs much sooner, the fact Marisa announced to be a result of her cunning plan. Nitori contributed it to dumb luck, but remained silent.

This staircase was different, as its frame was inscribed in strange wedged symbols. Marisa squinted, examining the writing. The silence dragged.

"Hmm…" the witch said after a while. "This makes no sense to me. Probably a curse to ward off grave robbers, but it's definitely not magical, so let's push forward. There has to be at least something interesting at the end of this maze."

"Like… cheese?" Nitori awkwardly asked. Marisa turned to her in surprise.

"Cheese? No, it's… oh wait, I got it, it's a joke. We are mice in the labyrinth, and our reward is cheese, hehe."

Nitori blushed slightly. This human seemed to approve and understand. Maybe this would turn out not that bad of a trip after all.

Marisa stretched. "Well, then, let's do this. I want for all of this to have an appropriate payoff in the end."

She went down the stairs, and Nitori followed her again. The lower level was different, wedged inscriptions covering the walls all around them. These inscriptions looked unnerving, almost alien, but Marisa showed no hesitance, so Nitori kept her thoughts and doubts to herself. It still was not threatening in any way, just an enormous dusty enclosed space. Nothing to worry about at all.

The corridor ended in an enormous inscribed room. It was cubic in shape, a single slab of stone at the middle, a single polished bronze figurine standing on it.

Excited, Marisa nearly ran forward and circled around the altar. Nitori followed slowly, the inscriptions and yawning openings of other corridors leading to the chamber filling her with unease. She made her way across the room and took a good look on the figurine.

It depicted a slender naked humanoid with a head of a hawk and four wings, his right clawed arm up as if in a greeting. Of the fact it was a "he" there was absolutely no doubt, as the figurine was extremely detailed, to the point even Marisa blushed a little. The base of the idol was also inscribed.

The witch slowly circled the pedestal again, looking for any hidden switches and pressure plates, but everything around them looked as solid as the whole pyramid. She asked Nitori to check if there were hidden hollows or mechanisms in the walls, but her devices registered nothing.

"And it's not in any way magical either as far as I can see," Marisa thought out loud, disappointment in her voice.

Nitori felt a little nervous. They were not robbing a grave or anything, but she still felt unnerved about taking the statue. Something was off, something at the edge of her perception of reality.

"So…"

"We take it, ze~" Marisa confidently said. "And then the divine inscriptions around us will come alive and choke us like constrictor snakes, a slow and torturous death that will leave our bodies as withered mummies and our souls to be forever trapped inside this demon."

Nitori barely suppressed a scream when Marisa reached forward and lifted the statue up. She then shook the idol around and turned it upside down. Nitori looked around the room in panic, and almost saw the inscriptions move.

"Oh, come on, don't be so Youmu about it. It's just a lump of lead… or bronze, whatever. A lot less than I expected, but still worth something. It's not going to destroy everything you hold dear and leave you an empty shell of a person you used to be. Here, touch it."

The kappa refused, furiously shaking her head. Marisa shrugged and swung the statue on her shoulder for easier transportation.

"Well, this place turned out to be mostly a boring identical maze, our treasure is nothing special, and there are no sinister dark plots to thwart, so let's get out of here."

She left the room, whistling something out of tune. Nitori glanced at the inscriptions for one last time, but still nothing happened and she felt a little ashamed. Really, all those stories of curses and traps turned out to be just that – stories.

And no, nothing horrible or tragic happened on the way back to the surface. Marisa whistled, shifting the heavy statue around when she got tired of a particular position and no mysterious force erased their markings or filled the complex with water or sand.

And so their adventure ended, long before sundown. They made their way to Nitori's house, and after sharing some food and talking about nothing Marisa left, taking the winged idol with her. Nitori noticed that the witch was much less energetic than in the morning, but again she kept it to herself. After all, humans get tired much easier and are much more fragile than even the weakest of youkai.

Nitori sighed. It was all so troublesome and mentally taxing. She should have just spent this whole day on her latest project instead.

After all, time can never be taken back once it is gone.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	2. Angst

**Shard 2: Angst**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Marisa woke up, and the morning greeted her with a mild headache and a sore throat. The sunlight that filtered through the half-shuttered window was nearly painful to look at for her. She groaned and put the blanket over her head.

Since her return from the temple raid last week she started to feel odd in the mornings. The feeling quickly passed but returned with odd persistence. And today it was worse than usual.

Marisa groaned again and rolled around under the blanket. She once again told herself that there was nothing wrong with her, and she was definitely not sick. It was a change in air pressure and humidity that were affecting her, not some curse or serious disability.

She threw the blanket away. After shuttering the window properly she quickly changed from nightgown into her daily black and white outfit and braided her hair. On the way to the bathroom, she passed a mirror and cringed at the bags under her eyes.

The house was a complete mess, but it was its usual state as long as Marisa remembered. She of course took out the trash that had the capacity to rot and smell, but everything else just piled up in heaps and stacks, books, papers, wooden and metal boxes holding everything from soap to ancient spell scrolls of considerable power.

As usual as it was with the newest additions to her chaotic collection, the winged demonic statue was put on a display in the center of the largest room, on a scratched and unsteady table. Marisa walked around a particularly large heap of books and leaned in to the beaked bronze face of the demon.

"You stupid bird better not be doing this to me," she menacingly said and poked the statue in the chest. "Or I swear I'll make an ugly chamber pot out of you."

The statue didn't answer, and Marisa sighed, continuing her track to the bathroom. She had a habit of snatching priceless effigies every other week, including the cursed and sacred ones, and she never even for a moment would seriously consider that this, completely mundane if well crafted one, could do her any harm.

She reached the bathroom and opened the tap. The house had a large water tank on the roof. It was painted black, and brass tube went down from it to provide hot water in summertime. At least it was supposed to, because no water came out this time.

"Augh, what the hell," Marisa grunted and decided to spend as much time outside on that particular day as possible. Dealing with the problem of clogged pipes so dreadfully reeked of boredom and frustrating depression she crossed it out of her mind with the largest mental chalk she could imagine.

Marisa quickly finished the morning preparations and, after finding a few pieces of bread and cheese untouched by mold, she took the hat with the widest brim and flew towards the human village, slamming the door behind her.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The Human Village was in the middle of preparing for some minor autumn event and the streets were busy with people. Most were decorating their houses with flower wreaths or cleaning the streets from assorted trash. Keine Kamishirasawa, the youkai history teacher and village guardian could be seen pacing the main square in front of the school, workers around.

All this buzzing and chatter made Marisa dizzy. Her condition didn't improve since morning, but she kept telling herself that everything was fine with her. She made small talk to some of the villagers, but didn't approach the square knowing that Keine would for sure give her some menial task.

Deep inside, Marisa hoped that Reisen would choose this day to come to the village and sell some elixirs, so she could buy something for her throat, but as the day went past noon she gave up on that hope. And the village herbalist was a woman of a quite mediocre talent, so Marisa decided to better rest than to subject herself to medicine of questionable quality.

Having nothing better to do, she bought some vegetables and fruit at the open market and helped herself to some roasted chicken when the owner of the stall was not looking. Packing everything into a small bag, she took off towards home.

By the time she reached it, her throat burned, and it became hard for her to swallow. She landed near the well and pulled up the bucket, hungrily gulping the cold water. It helped a little, but Marisa has had enough by that point.

She threw the door open and confidently walked towards the winged idol. It regarded her with its usual inanimate indifference.

"All right, you clawed naked freak. My name is Marisa Kirisame, and I don't catch colds, ever. So I blame you, but in my infinite mercy I'm willing to give you one final chance, ze~. Let's get some fresh air, shall we?"

She unceremoniously grabbed the statue by the lower wing and stomped towards the exit. After slamming the door for the second time this day she mounted her broom and took off, the idol stuck upside down into the brush behind her.

Her destination was the Kourindou, a small antique shop in the wilderness. Its owner, Rinnosuke Morichika, was an old friend of Marisa's father, but more importantly this half-youkai was capable of determining the purpose of various odd objects, and Marisa was more than eager to find out if the main purpose of the idol was "curse" or not. And the very next priority was to find an appropriate buyer for this thing, because she was already fed up with it.

She reached her intended destination soon enough. The sun was already hanging low, and various otherworldly trinkets and objects around the shop gleamed in its rays. Rinnosuke put these things out on purpose, keeping more fragile and intricate ones inside.

Marisa opened the door and the small wind bell above it chimed, announcing her arrival. The owner of the shop stood up to greet her, closing the thin book he was reading and adjusting his glasses. Dressed in intricate blue jacket adorned with yellow runes he fit right in among everything around – clockwork birds, music boxes and various crystals.

"Evening, Kourin," Marisa said on her way to the counter. She put the idol on it. "I'm on business today, ze~."

"And good evening to you too, Marisa," Rinnosuke responded with a nod and turned the statue to face him properly. He concentrated, and the sun reflected off his sunglasses, hiding his eyes.

"Oh, and do you have something for a sore throat?"

"I don't think I have," he absently answered, and leaned in to the feet of the statue. "This is a very interesting thing you brought in today, by the way. Raided that new temple in the mountains?"

"Yeah, and I wish I didn't now. So, what is it? Is it cursed?"

Rinnosuke ducked under the counter and returned with an old tattered notebook before answering. "Well, no. It is a statue, and its purpose is to be an object of worship. That's all."

He opened the notebook and started tracing the inscription, referencing it and mumbling something to himself. Marisa grew tired of the silent treatment rather quickly.

"So why do I feel like shit, then?" she snapped, and Rinnosuke looked up at her.

"Well, I am no doctor, Marisa, but it is not unknown for old tombs to be natural breeding grounds for bacteria and molds. I told you time and time again to be more careful…"

"Yes, yes, 'I told you so', speech." Marisa grumbled. "I am a big girl and can take care of myself. Now, what's written there, I want to get home before sundown."

"Actually, I am not that much an expert on cuneiform, so this might take fifteen minutes or so. Feel free to browse while I transcribe it…"

He returned to his notebook and Marisa sighed. She knew Rinnosuke was much older than he looked and was much more interested in ancient texts and artifacts than he was in real people. It was better not to disturb him any further.

Marisa left the shop and drank some water from the nearby well. It helped, but again much less than she wanted to. She then idly examined the merchandise put on display, pondering what of it would look great decorating her porch. Having not found anything suitable among the bent iron beams with arrow signs on plaques attached to their ends, she returned inside.

Rinnosuke was scribbling something on a sheet of paper. He gestured for her to come closer.

"I've finished the analysis and I think I know a buyer in the village who might be interested in the statue. I'm drawing you a map right now, and the transcription is here."

He slid a smaller paper sheet across the counter to Marisa. She picked it up and glanced through it. Then, she smiled.

"Wow, so full of pathos, ze~. Why did ancient people always write this way?"

She cleared her aching throat and read aloud from the sheet:

_I am Pazuzu, the God among gods_

_I am Pazuzu, the shaper of worlds_

_Speak my name thrice, I shall grant your desire_

_Nothing at all in exchange I require_

"Hmm," Marisa continued, scratching her head. "Are you sure you translated the last line correctly? _Only your soul in exchange I require_ rhymes perfectly too, you know."

"I am sure," Rinnosuke said, finishing his map. "And besides, it is not magical, so asking this statue for a wish is exactly the same as asking a brick wall. Here."

He passed Marisa the map along with the idol. "I am sure you will negotiate quite a hefty sum for it. Just promise me you will see a doctor tomorrow."

"Yeah, I promise," Marisa offhandedly said already on her way out. "Take care, Kourin."

"And you too, Marisa," the man answered and returned to his book.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The sun has already set when Marisa entered the Human Village again. She decided to wrap it all up in a single day and tomorrow, if she wouldn't feel any improvement, she would visit Eirin, as much as she didn't want to.

It was unbelievably idiotic to go to an ancient tomb only to get an ugly mundane idol and a cold. And it would be just as stupid if the man whom Rinnosuke recommended would buy this heavy thing for an amount of money only enough for a few meals.

Marisa traced the map, making her way towards the outskirts of the village. The streets were very quiet, even unnaturally so but Marisa didn't notice that, her nose in the map and her attention mostly on the pangs of pain she experienced when she gulped.

She reached the house she needed and sat on a bench in front of it to rest a bit. It was already late, but she didn't want to look ruffled and sweaty in front of the potential buyer. She put the statue beside her and poked it in the bronze eye.

"Well, god among gods, it's time to sell you to some freak who gets turned on by naked bird men, ze~. Still better then be turned into a chamber pot, though."

Marisa stood up, straightened her dress and tucked in her braid. She pulled up the heavy statue with a huff.

"You know, I probably really look stupid right now, talking to you, but I really can't stand the silence, it is just so oppressing. And it is a bit sad you disappointed me so much, being just a statue and all."

She stopped in front of the door. For some reason, a part of her didn't want to give away the heavy idol. Because she knew that after that, she'd had to return to her messy and dirty home, and tomorrow promised little in terms of excitement and fun. And, stupid as it was, Marisa spoke to the idol again.

"Pazuzu, Pazuzu, Pazuzu. I wish that when I return back home, it would be miraculously cleaned the plumbing would be repaired, and I would be cured of this cold, whatever it is."

The idol, being bronze and inanimate, remained true to its nature and didn't do anything. Marisa waited for a bit, then sighed and went to the door.

She knocked, but nobody answered despite windows being lit. She waited, then knocked again.

"Go… go away!" a terrified voice called out from behind the door. "We did nothing to you, it's just our annual festival! Go away!"

"Umm…" Marisa said, unsure of how to continue after such a reaction. "I'm Kirisame Marisa, you might have heard of me. I'm looking for a person interested in antiques, and Rinnosuke recommended you. I have this Pazuzu idol with me, very ancient."

The owner of the terrified voice, judging by the volume, just moved only further from the door. "No, go away! You will attract her attention here! Just leave, quickly!"

"Attention? Attract who? And come on, it's a very cool idol, it grants wishes! You just say "Pazuzu" three times and poof! Wish granted, ze~!"

"Really? How interesting."

This quiet, serene voice came from behind, and Marisa nearly dropped the statue from shock. She knew this voice, and she now understood why the village was so empty just now.

Yuuka Kazami, the elder youkai of flowers decided to visit the flower festival.

Marisa slowly turned and backed to the door. This was definitely not a place to fight, and she definitely was in no condition to fight. And she never expected for Yuuka to be so close to her, less than a step away, floating gently a few inches from the ground, holding a bouquet of sunflowers in one hand and a closed parasol in the other. Her red jacket and dress contrasted with her surroundings like two large bloody blots.

"Hey, Yuuka, what a lovely evening," Marisa said, forcing a quite pathetic smile. "The humans sure treated flowers well this year, didn't they?"

"Oh yes, they sure did," Yuuka responded, returning quite a pleasant smile of her own. "Cutting them, wringing their stems, nailing their corpses to doorways. Very considerate and gentle."

Marisa wanted to comment on bouquet in Yuuka's hands, but bit her tongue in time. With such an unstable person, every word had to be weighted carefully.

"Um, look, I know you are upset, but humans work hard and need their holidays and festivities. You know, for the greater good of all Gensok—"

Marisa missed the moment of attack. In a broad daylight, at a safe distance for a spell card activation, with adrenaline pumping she would have dodged. But right there, right at that time, she didn't, and the sharp tip of an umbrella pierced her stomach.

Marisa screamed and grabbed Yuuka's arm, the idol falling to the paved ground with a loud clang. Yuuka pushed on the umbrella with her inhuman strength, causing to go all the way through Marisa's body and exit from her back.

"Oh yes, I am a bit upset," Yuuka said evenly and twisted her wrist, causing Marisa to scream even more. "And you humans should feel at least the part of the pain I feel when I see the flowers treated this way."

She released her grip on the handle and Marisa fell, crying out in pain. Yuuka smiled again and picked up the idol. She traced with her finger a bloodstain that was left on its beaked face.

Marisa managed to control herself and grabbed the handle of the umbrella, trying to pull it out. Yuuka stepped on her hand.

"Don't be stupid, you'll bleed out this way. And don't forget to return it and apologize."

"But I… didn't do anything to yuAGH!"

Yuuka applied pressure to her foot, and Marisa screamed again.

"As I represent and answer for all the flowers, Reimu represents and answers for the humans. I asked her to cancel this nature-desecrating event five years ago, three years, last year… Maybe she will listen this time. Or maybe I should ask this Pazuzu to just kill you all, you humans are obviously just too stupid to live."

She released her foot, her heel leaving a very visible imprint on the fingers. She flipped her hair back and tucked the idol under her arm.

"Reimu will… kill you…" Marisa managed to say. Yuuka's smile grew wider, then she chuckled, and then she left, laughing as she disappeared around the corner, her insane laugh fading in the distance.

Marisa remained on the ground, the horrible wound in her stomach burning, sending waves of pain around. She felt tired, and soon enough, she felt the pain lessening.

The last thing she remembered was being dragged on the carpet, worried and scared faces of the people she didn't know hanging above her as her vision faded into dark fog, then nothingness.

And far away, on the field of sunflowers bathed in moonlight, Yuuka Kazami made her selfish, unwise and petty wish.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	3. Crime

**Shard 3: Crime**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The skies were overcast, gray clouds hanging low and moving fast to the pull of the wind. And a single dark speck defied this pull, dashing in short diagonal bursts of speed.

"Ayayayaya, I'm so late," Aya Shameimaru lamented, doing her best to fight the gusts of wind. She barely had time to dress this morning, as the news she received at sunrise from one of her servant crows were most urgent and exciting.

A crime was committed in Gensokyo, a brutal and violent murder, and the victim was no one other than Yuuka Kazami, one of the most feared and powerful youkai. It was a story that needed to be researched into and given publicity as the first priority. And Aya knew that with her keen intellect and eyesight she would not only give it proper media coverage, but it would be her, and her only who would solve this crime and bring the culprit to justice!

The details of that act of justice were hazy in her mind, as her self-gratifying daydreams never extended past the point when she would accusingly point at someone and proclaim "The murderer is you!". The subject of her point was most frequently a wide-eyed and trembling Nitori for some reason.

Aya folded her wings and swooped down, trying to find a more favorable wind current. She was already close to the crime site, the location known as "Garden of the Sun." On that particular day it looked no different from any other meadow, as in the absence of the sun the sunflowers that covered the field hung their heads low, as if weeping for their mistress.

The scene of the crime itself stood out like an open wound, the center obscured by some powerful screening spell. Grass and sunflowers were scythed down around it in chaotic patterns, and on the edge of the zone of devastation Aya saw a few tight groups of youkai and fairies. To her disgust, she saw that Hatate was already here, talking to a group of grass fairies and making notes in a notebook.

Aya touched down, hiding the wings for more comfortable movement between sunflower stems and, pretending not to notice the fact that Hatate was pointing at her and no doubt bad-mouthing her slowness in front of the fairies, made her way towards the most imposing and serious youkai present – Chen Yakumo.

Chen looked tense, her two tails moving aimlessly and her cat ears twitching. She wore orange and not very clean dress that day, and her green hat was likewise crumpled, hair sticking from under it. She kept her posture though, keeping the fairies behind a prominent burnt line on the ground.

"Aya Shameimaru, Bunbunmaru times," the tengu confidently announced, stepping close to the line and looking the cat shikigami right in the eyes. "I am ready to take your statement."

Not breaking eye contact, she pulled out a notebook and a mechanical pencil, clicking it loudly. Chen regarded her with stoic indifference.

"The crime scene is off limits, and you shall receive no comments on the matter," she said.

Aya started to scribble in the notebook. The silence dragged on, and she kept writing, turning one, then another page. Chen, not really understanding how a single phrase could take so much paper space leaned forward to steal a glance. Aya slammed the notebook shut.

"I just a wrote the first half of a great and stingy article delving into oppression of free speech by those in power. The second half is going to be about possible locations in Gensokyo where Yuuka may be spending her vacation at, because she is obviously alive."

Aya demonstratively tucked the notebook into her pocket and Chen panicked.

"No, w-wait, I really don't know anything and Ran ordered to not let anyone inside, so please…"

"Gensokyo must know the truth," Aya said and stepped over the line like she possessed a sacred birthright to do so. Chen helplessly reached out towards her, but Aya paid no heed, walking confidently towards the center of destruction, her high sandals crunching the broken stems.

A purple semi-transparent wall appeared before her, and Aya stepped through it, instinctively holding her breath.

The area inside the barrier was scorched and barren, and formed an elongated clearing with a small crater in the middle. The crater had a bloody heap of clothes at the bottom, a mangled and torn umbrella being a distinctive detail of the pile. At the edge of the crater Yukari was standing, staring down without blinking. Her nine-tailed fox guardian was a bit to the side, squatting down and examining the bloody imprint on the ground left by something heavy and winged.

Aya's throat went dry. Judging from Yukari's facial expression, this all was hardly a joke. Aya suppressed a desire to run and cleared her throat.

"Aya Shameimaru, Bunbunmaru times," she said, a bit unsure whom to address. "I'm ready to take your statements."

Yukari didn't respond or show any indication that she heard what was just said. Ran stood up and gave Aya an annoyed look.

"Yukari-sama is not in the mood to talk and does not have time for your childish games. Yuuka Kazami is dead and is not coming back. Write this in your newspaper in these exact words, no speculation or exaggeration."

Aya gulped. What did she mean by that "not coming back"? Aren't youkai supposed to be reformed by Gensokyo in time?

"And no pictures either, especially of the remains of the deceased. Yukari-sama forbids preserving such a memory of her, regardless of what person she was in life," Ran finished.

"Escort her out, and ensure no one else disturbs me," Yukari said in a hollow, flat voice. Ran bowed and stepped towards Aya.

Aya didn't need to be asked twice. She left the scene in haste, nearly running. Questions swarmed in her head like disturbed bees, but she dared not to ask a single one.

Ran escorted her beyond the burnt line and Aya sat down, trying to get her thoughts in order. Well, this was definitely not your average fairy "death" that often made it to the front page of her newspaper with a headline like "Cirno implodes, a homestead frozen solid!" with a liberal application of exclamation marks. This one, for starters, had an actual bloody corpse, a mysterious winged imprint and grieving or at least severely shocked acquaintances.

"Aw, look at our sad slowpoke," Hatate said with a sadistic smile, waltzing towards Aya.

Aya despised Hatate Himekaidou with a passion of a thousand suns. A rival tengu and a rival reporter, Hatate embodied everything that was wrong with the "progressive" way of the outer world. She dressed like a slut, her purple plaid skirt so short it nearly left her panties open, she used a "digital" camera in her "cell phone" to make blurry and skewed pictures and was generally an unpleasant person be around.

And today, in addition to everything, she got the news first and was gloating about it.

"So, so slow," Hatate said and flipped open her pink photo device, snapping a picture of Aya. "Helplessly behind the story. Helplessly behind investigation. Helplessly behind life."

"Ayayayaya, would you stop this? Yuuka is dead, show some respect."

"Like, whatever," Hatate said, closing her cell. "She was a monster, she's better off dead. She nearly killed Marisa and got what was coming to her."

Aya jumped up. "Marisa? What happened?"

Hatate smirked mischievously. "Oh, wouldn't you want to know, you paralytic snail. She's at Eientei, in critical. I've been there, Reimu looks like she got hit with a frying pan on the face, even more than Yukari or Wriggle are. Boo-hoo, so sad about their friends."

It took all of Aya's self-control to not hit Hatate that moment, and the younger tengu noticed that.

"Oh, come on, it's business and it's life. Be quick or be dead, piss off Yuuka – get to hospital, piss off Reimu – get exterminated. And I may have gotten the news first, but you get the chance to write analytically and in-depth. Laters, loser."

She left Aya alone, snapping more pictures. The stupid grass fairies posed and smiled, and Aya ground her teeth. "Analytically and in-depth", right. Second-rate news is like rotten fruit – it is of interest only to pigs and imbeciles.

Regardless, she couldn't just stand there and do nothing. There had to be some more opportunities to chase, and this new information automatically revealed a strongly motivated suspect for this murder – Reimu Hakurei. And the idol was also a promising lead to chase.

Out of spite Aya readied her camera and took a shot of Ran and Chen before unfolding her wings and taking off in the air. She also took a wide snapshot of the area when she gained enough altitude. Something in the patterns of fallen grass seemed familiar, but she couldn't put a finger on it.

Frustrated and angry, but ready to continue Aya Shameimaru, the tengu reporter of Gensokyo, marked Eientei as her next destination.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Eientei, a dark and ominous mansion located in the middle of a bamboo forest, was a home of some of the most powerful newcomers to Gensokyo. And although Eirin Yagokoro had a bad reputation for starting an "incident" she still remained a doctor of unsurpassed skill and talent, willing to work with the hardest of cases.

Unfortunately for Aya though, she never answered the door, leaving such mundane duties to her rabbit workers. And today it was Tewi Inaba.

"Round and round it goes, where it goes, nobody knows," Tewi said with a lisp, shuffling three overturned cups on the floor with quick, almost untraceable movements.

"Why am I doing this again?" Aya groaned and rubbed her temples. The humanoid rabbit stopped moving the cups and gestured for her to guess.

"This one," Aya said and pointed at the middle one. She has given up hope to deduce under which cup the ball was long ago, and now guessed at random, hoping for a one-third chance to finally play out.

"Nope," Tewi said and turned the cup. Empty, and the ball was under the right one this time.

"Ayayayaya, just let me pass already! I need to talk to Reimu, it is important!"

"Not until you win," Tewi said seriously. "And you will never win by guessing, you have to know where the ball goes. Round and round it goes…"

She put a ball under a cup and started shuffling. Aya lost the cup again and grabbed her hair in frustration.

"This is impossible! And you are cheating, the ball is not even there! You put it in the last moment wherever you like! Let me pass!"

"What looks like cheating to you is just my skill at making you think it is not there. Guess, or no Reimu for you," Tewi said, stopped the cups and flopped her ears comically.

"Left!" Aya shouted, and grabbed the cup herself this time. Empty, and Tewi flipped the central one with a smirk, revealing the ball.

"You are so close! One more try and you'll guess! Round and round it goes..."

"Well, that's it," Aya announced, standing up. "We will settle this one with spell cards. Till two hits, and no rematches for three weeks."

Tewi yawned and shifted her pose, sticking her bare feet in front of her. She started picking the dirt from in-between her toes. "If you give up now it will be your one hundred and eights loss. It's bad luck to lose so much in a row, you should try until you win."

Tewi was definitely not in a mood for a fight, and Aya considered her options. Attacking would mean trashing the place, drawing dozens of fairies in and it ultimately would lead only to Eirin or Reisen just throwing her out. Playing again would just consume more of her time, and she wasted almost an hour already. Having decided she politely excused herself, leaving Tewi behind and closing the front door on her way out.

She of course had no intention on giving up that easily. After all, Hatate somehow have gotten inside, and Aya very much doubted that her dumb colleague was capable of outwitting Tewi in the game of cups and balls. There had to be another way in, an easier one.

And, naturally, there was. The wing of the mansion that was refitted to be a small hospital had large, regularly cleaned windows to let as much sun in as possible, and half of them were not shuttered, so Aya silently flew to them.

Most of the rooms were empty but in one of them to her great surprise Aya saw Nitori. The kappa was sitting on the made-up bed, looking bored and idly swinging her legs back and forth. She was wearing her usual rubber boots, and they made a funny squeaking sound when they passed one another.

"Psst, Nitori, let me in," Aya whispered and lightly tapped on the window. Nitori jumped in surprise, but seeing who it was calling her she smiled and left the bed, opening the window wide enough for Aya to slip in.

"What are you doing here?" Aya whispered when she was inside.

"My throat felt funny, so I went to buy some medicine from Reisen," Nitori whispered back. "We talked a bit, and I told her I was exploring that new ancient temple. She panicked and dragged me in here, telling Eirin I got some forgotten plague."

Aya raised an eyebrow, as Nitori looked healthy as ever. "Hmm, this would make a great article. Ancient plague strikes Gensokyo! Even youkai are affected!"

Nitori frowned. "It is not very funny. I drank some syrups and got better after a few days, but Marisa got it worse, and with her injury Eirin doesn't even want to make a prognosis."

"So… do you think she can actually…"

Aya trailed off, and Nitori slightly shrugged. "How should I know? Eirin may be exaggerating to keep the concerned visitors away for a while. When the news will spread, this place will become like a besieged fortress for sure. I am so glad my quarantine ends tomorrow."

Aya pulled out her notebook and made a few brief notes in it, making a triangle out of words "disease", "temple" and "Marisa". She then clicked her pencil and tapped its tip on the paper.

"So… I suppose you have an alibi for Yuuka's murder then, aren't you, Kawashiro Nitori?"

Nitori frowned again and sat on the bed. "You know, sometimes you are no better than Hatate with your questions. Seriously, stop playing with such serious things and leave it to Reimu and Yukari to investigate."

"I'll take this ambiguously evasive answer as a confession of murder," Aya said seriously. Nitori slapped herself on the forehead.

"Great Moriya gods, would you stop that? I was here the entirety of last night, and so was Reimu. And please, don't go and bother her, she is traumatized as it is."

"I have to solve the murder," Aya declared.

"Why? What good will it do? Nobody except Wriggle liked Yuuka anyway, so let it drop. If you keep nosing around you'll only get hate for your efforts. Just research and write about something funny instead, people like that stuff."

Aya sighed. In a way, Nitori was right, if she kept prying and accusing without evidence, she would indeed get nothing but hate. Some discreet research had to be done first.

"Well, I'll take your advice then and leave. Get well soon… oh wait, you have recovered already, so… good luck with your experiments?"

"Thanks," Nitori responded and started to swing her legs again. "I'm actually glad you visited, it is so boring and quiet in here. Come to my place in a while, I'll show you my latest project, it is definitely something worth a column."

"Sure," Aya said with a smile and slipped out of the window outside. She waved Nitori goodbye, and the kappa waved in return.

Unfolding her wings, Aya soared high, and took off in the direction of the Human Village.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The rain started closer to evening, and Aya was happy to return home. The rest of the day was mostly unproductive, and her visit to the village bore little results.

The people were scared by Yuuka's yesterday arrival, and the only ones celebrating the flower event were Keine and her students. Rumors of Marisa's injury and Yuuka's death spread around, often switching who was dead and who was not, and some people talked about some kind of a cursed idol that was supposedly capable of granting wishes.

Aya diligently put all of this to paper, but by the time the rain started she has had about enough. She still had to develop pictures and ready a column for it to be published tomorrow. What annoyed her even more that Hatate was always one step in front of her, having interviewed everyone of interest a few hours earlier.

Now Aya was in the darkroom of her home, composing a column in a dim light that the red lamp provided. There were only a few pictures she has taken that day, and the film was hanging in front of her, drying out.

She had much difficulty with the column. Try as she might, she could not force herself to just write "Yuuka is dead" like she was told to. Yuuka was killed, and the murderer was somewhere out there, probably prowling the night, not caring as the raindrops fell onto the hood of her dark cloak, not caring as she stepped closer and closer to Aya's house, her silly rubber boots making ominous splashes…

Aya pushed the images of maniacally laughing dark Nitori out of her mind and turned her attention to the film. It dried out sufficiently to be put into the enlarger, and Aya did exactly that.

A few shots of the Garden of the Sun, one from high above. Ran, covering her face and Chen, making a V sign, made even more silly because of her long red fingernails. A group photo of smiling Keine with fairies, a picture without Wriggle. The same picture again, because Rumia closed her eyes at the flash…

"Wait a minute, I know this…" Aya muttered and slid the film back to the photo with a wide angled shot of the crime scene. "I know this pattern, I've seen it before!"

She rushed to the cabinet where she stored shots of spell card patterns. They were neatly arranged in files, with photos of owners on top. Gathering snapshots of spell cards was a very dangerous hobby, and Hatate shamelessly copied even that. However, now was not the time to think about her.

Aya chose one file and returned to the enlarger. She frantically flipped through the photos, and found what she needed on the last one. A circular pattern radially flowing in then out in short, straight clusters. "_Yukari's Arcanum: Danmaku Bounded Field"._

"No way," Aya said, leaning on the back of her chair. "It makes no sense. Why would Yukari kill Yuuka?"

And right at that moment someone knocked on the front door. Aya sat upright at the sound, a thousand of theories going through her head in an instant, and the most dominant one was that Yukari somehow magically found out and came to eliminate the witness.

The knock repeated, and Aya shook her head. It was just silly to assume that, it was the same to assume that it was a murderous Nitori in a raincoat, on her monthly fishhook murder spree.

The knock repeated again, and Aya stood up. It was probably some traveler lost in the rain, or Sanae with some urgent business. Aya put on slippers and went to get the door.

"Who's there?"

"Open up, slowpoke, I'm freezing my ass out here!"

Oh right. Hatate, of course. What the hell did she want?

"What the hell do you want?" Aya voiced her thoughts, opening the door. Hatate was soaked wet, and was wearing a tasteless and colorful backpack over her wings. She sneered and tried to push herself inside the house.

"What, a friend can't visit without invitation now? How rude."

"We are not friends," Aya said, blocking her in the doorway. "Say what you want and get lost, I've got a column to finish, and so do you."

"Exactly. And I'd like to make sure we both don't write something that will get our newspapers closed, and I need your advice, because I just found out something, like, huge."

Aya's mind raced. Does she know it was Yukari who killed Yuuka too? If so, it means…

Actually, Aya had absolutely no idea what it meant, but she decided to let Hatate in and listen. Hatate stepped inside and thrashed like a wet dog, drying herself up and making half of the living room wet.

She then crashed on the couch and put her backpack in front of her. Aya scowled.

"This better be worth it," she said, crossing her arms.

"Oh, it is," Hatate said and opened the backpack, pulling a heavy bronze idol out of it. The figurine of the winged humanoid with his right clawed arm up was covered in something that very much looked like dried blood. Hatate put the idol in front of her, smiling at Aya's awestruck reaction.

"How… when… how…"

"I was the first one at the crime scene, found it on the edge of the garden," Hatate said and opened her cell phone. "I also made some pretty good close-ups of Yuuka's dead face, she looks so cute and happy. Wanna see?"

She extended her arm, and Aya instinctively jerked back. "Hatate, what the hell?"

Hatate chuckled and closed the phone. "Just kidding, slowpoke. There was nothing left of the face, and little left of everything else, but you, like, saw it yourself."

She sneezed and blew her nose on the carpet, causing Aya to shudder in disgust. Hatate continued.

"But this idol is, like, awesome. I asked around, it grants you any wish if you know how to ask it properly. Say, Aya, what would you wish for?"

The sudden question took Aya off-guard, because the first thing she imagined was a very vivid scene of Hatate dropping dead and crumbling into dust. Presumably after cleaning up the mess she brought with her from outside.

"I'd wish for… shiny things. Lots of shiny things," Aya lied.

"Really? That's what I wished for too! Too bad the idol does not grant any wishes for reals, it's just metal. But hey, I found something even more interesting, come and see!"

She pulled a tiny white box out of the backpack and opened the lid. Aya stepped closer and saw it was filled with some kind of white powder.

"And what—"

Hatate suddenly sneezed, and the cloud of powder from the box got into Aya's face. It had no smell and didn't sting the eyes for some reason.

The next moment Aya discovered she was unable to stand, falling face first to the floor. She didn't feel the impact, and when she tried to stand up she found out she was no longer able to move her arms. It was all very strange and confusing.

"So, so slow," Hatate said somewhere above her. Aya attempted to turn her head, but suddenly the whole world turned upside down and started to fade.

"So very slow."

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	4. Drama

**Shard 4: Drama**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"Damn, you're heavy," Hatate grunted, sliding the limp body of Aya off her shoulders. "But it's too late to back down now, don't you agree?"

"What's… happening?"

What was the most annoying was the fact that Aya never lost consciousness completely, trying to fight back weakly and asking strange questions instead all the time. Hatate dragged her halfway to her own house already but it took more than an hour and a half, and the rain and wind were only getting stronger.

"Hatate, is that you? Where are… we?"

"Shut up," Hatate said and slapped Aya on the face. "Why are you awake anyway? Ah, forget it…"

She again lifted Aya up and continued towards her home. Flying in such and weather and with such a weight was impossible, and the slope of mountain where both tengu lived was not the most gentle one.

They covered about a mile more, and Hatate stopped again, completely exhausted. She propped a hallucinating and feverish Aya against a large upright boulder and rubbed her aching shoulders.

It was such a simple plan. To use the drug she got from Tewi to knock out Aya, then keep her sedated for a few days. Aya's newspaper would not come out, and "Kakashi Spirit News" would become the only source to cover the Yuuka's murder, providing accurate and timely information on the progress of investigation. And when Aya recovers, no doubt not remembering anything about any of this, her reputation as a reporter would be completely ruined.

But the drug didn't work as Hatate expected, and now she had to find another way to keep Aya isolated from the world. And the only solution was to lock her up, preferably in a location where no one would expect to find her, and Hatate's wine cellar fit perfectly for that.

Minor complications included dragging a weakly struggling Aya in the abysmal weather and then returning for the heavy idol of Pazuzu and tidying up Aya's living room a bit to hide the evidence.

Hatate felt she rested enough to drag Aya further. She sighed and pulled the body up.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The shouts were faint, nearly inaudible, but they were there, and the moment Hatate lost concentration on some task the sounds crept in mercilessly.

They came in from the basement, and the source of them was Aya. She regained her senses nearly six hours ago, and was not pleased in the slightest by the fact she was now tied and locked up in a dusty enclosed space.

When Hatate visited Aya for the first time, the first thing the other tengu did was spitting in her face and calling her insane. She promised to strangle Hatate with her bare hands after getting free and promised to scream all the time until she would get help.

She kept the last promise so far, and Hatate had to jam some rags under the door to the basement to make the shouts less prominent. She had job to do, writing for the newspaper and researching more into the idol, and the faint screams and death threats were very annoying and distracting.

Hatate sighed and made a dog ear on the page. Maybe Aya would be more compliant if she gave her some food? It was way too early to let her go anyway.

Hatate went to the kitchen and gathered some assorted vegetables and bread. There was no way she would waste meat on that good-for-nothing reporter. She put it all on the plate and went to the basement.

The cellar was quite spacious once, but now it was cluttered with mostly empty wine racks. The racks were there when she moved in, and Hatate thought of collecting wine once but it was expensive and the rarest brands came from the Outer World, so she gave up on that idea a few years later.

Hearing the door to the basement open Aya shouted even more.

"Help! Help me, it's Aya, and I'm trapped in here! Help!"

"Oh, shut up," Hatate said tiredly. "I never expected you to be, like, such a baby about it."

Aya gave her a glance full of hate. She was tied down to the support beam with thick and dirty hemp rope, and her clothes her likewise dirty and wet. Being dragged from home, she was only in her socks, and her hat got lost somewhere along the way. There were a few a large bruises forming on her face, a result of falling over and Hatate slapping her.

"A baby? I am kidnapped by an insane maniac! You have gone mad, Hatate, don't you see? The idol has driven you insane!"

Hatate shrugged and put the plate on the floor. "I'm just fine, there is nothing wrong with me. You are overreacting."

"Over… overreacting? You drugged me, you pulled me in here, you tied me up, and you left this idol with me! Snap out of it!"

The idol was also indeed in the basement, propped up on a large empty barrel to be facing Aya. The rain of yesterday cleaned the blood up, and now the bronze was gleaming in the uneven light that came from the narrowly opened basement door.

Hatate snickered. "Oh, come on, you are taking this all, like, way too seriously. I have no intention of hurting you, I'll let you out, like, tomorrow when my column goes to print. I brought you some carrots even, look."

Aya just shook her head. "Hatate, please, just listen to yourself and think about what you are doing."

"Meh, whatever," Hatate said with a dismissive wave. "You won't understand anyway. Call me when you get hungry, I'll feed you."

Seeing that Hatate turned to leave, Aya's eyes widened and she shouted again. "No! Don't leave me here, let me—"

Hatate slammed the door shut and tucked the rags under it again. Aya was so annoying and stupid. Maybe she should leave her there for one more day.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The column went to print, and Hatate watched proudly as the press spit out the fresh pages. It was her, and only her success, no demons or idols helping her. A strong, decisive decision that will surely benefit her future career as a reporter.

And as for Aya, Hatate knew Aya's handwriting, so she spent a few hours forging a letter for the tengu boss. The letter strongly implied that Aya has found something very interesting and had to spend a few days in an unspecified location to study it. It ended with a promise of returning the "greatest scoop" of all time. It would be enough for a short-term distraction.

And as for the long-term consequences, Hatate decided to think about that later. She would have find a way to wipe Aya's memories somehow, and for now there were much more exciting things to research into.

For example, the idol. Hatate, for a sizable sum and a promise of a favor, rented a book on cuneiform from Rinnosuke, and went to pyramid from where the idol was rumored to come from. She wandered around the corridors for a few hours until she found a series of heavily inscribed halls. She snapped photos of inscriptions on her cell and returned home way past dusk.

She opened the door and strained her ears to pick up the screams, but there were none. A dreadful thought wormed into Hatate's head, a thought that Aya has managed to escape, so she ran for the basement door.

Hatate sighed in relief at seeing the door. The rags were in place just as she left them, so obviously Aya was still inside. Hatate put her backpack down and went in.

Aya was still tied up to the beam, her head limply hanging down. An unpleasant smell now permeated the basement, but Hatate decided not to focus on that.

"Hey, it's not yet time to sleep, it's like, ten p.m. Hey!"

She walked to Aya and slapped her on the face. Aya jerked up, blinking drowsily, her eyes bloodshot and swollen. The food was unsurprisingly untouched, as Aya had no way to reach it. Somehow, the sight of the suffering Aya caused no emotion in Hatate except for even more annoyance.

"Well, have you changed your mind? Are you going to, like, eat or what?"

"Water… some water, please," Aya croaked, and Hatate winced at how pathetic that voice sounded. How could she even consider this wretched thing to be her greatest rival?

She went up the stairs and poured some water into the glass, spitting into it at the end for good measure. There were ancient texts to decipher, and feeding this unworthy filth was way beneath her.

She returned down, and stuck the glass to Aya's teeth. She quickly gulped it down, spilling a lot and breaking into coughing in the end. Hatate picked up a piece of bread and shoved it into Aya's face, but the other tengu shut her mouth and furiously shook her head.

"Hatate, please, just let me go, it is still not too late. We can still fix all this mess, just listen to me. Reimu will—"

Hatate pulled her arm back and hit Aya in the face with a fist. Aya suppressed a scream, spitting a bit of blood to the side. She spoke again.

"Hatate, please, you are cursed. Just listen-"

Hatate hit her again, and Aya stopped talking, shutting her eyes and turning her head to the side, trying to escape another blow. Hatate lowered her arm.

"Have you learned your lesson? I'm, like, getting sick of your attitude. You'll have to ask really, really nice for more water next time. Laters, loser."

She stomped out, and stuck the rugs under the door once again. What's was that with Aya and her talk of curses anyway? Maybe she should leave her there for one more day, just to be sure.

Yes, just for one more day.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

It was even better than she expected. The whole edition of the paper sold out in only a few hours, both humans and youkai eager to find out the details of Yuuka's murder and Marisa's hospitalization. The boss fumed, enraged by Aya's absence at such an important time for Gensokyo's press.

And Hatate took half of the day off, returning to the strange wedged texts. Rhymes and psalms, all of them singing praises to the glory of Pazuzu, the shaper of worlds.

And there were also spells, instructions and words of power, instantly lethal attacks and impregnable spell armor. Hatate was amazed how easy it all came to her, and she needed to rely on the Rinnosuke's notebook less and less, the inscriptions burning inside her mind with absolute, radiant clarity.

A knock at the door pulled her back to the reality. How many hours have passed since she started her research? Hatate looked outside and saw it was already dark outside. Who could it be at this hour?

She walked to the door, but when she passed the mirror on the way, she abruptly stopped.

"What the hell…" Hatate whispered. Her hands, forearms and face were covered in ink, long wedged inscriptions coiling in spirals. But more importantly, her eyeliner and lipstick smudged, and she looked like a circus freak.

The knock repeated, and Hatate rushed to the kitchen to wash her face. The inscriptions held of course, but at least she was presentable now. She threw on a long-sleeved sweater and went to open the door.

The one at her doorstep was Momiji Inubashiri, the white wolf tengu. She looked ruffled, twigs in her silver hair and dirt marring her white shirt. Her shield gleamed as usual, though.

"Hey, Hatate…" Momiji started, but stumbled when she saw the inscriptions. "What's with your face?"

"And what's with the late visit?" Hatate answered, and was surprised to hear how strange her voice sounded, distorted and rough. Momiji gave her a strange wary look.

"Hatate, you didn't come to work today, and there is still no word from Aya, so the boss is worried and sent me to search the mountain. What's with you?"

Hatate dryly gulped. Didn't come to work today? Has she just spent more than thirty hours at the texts without a break?

"Great Moriya gods…" Momiji suddenly gasped, staring somewhere over Hatate's shoulder. Hatate turned too, and saw how her living room now looked like.

Inscriptions, symbols mixed with ordinary words, on slips on paper, walls and furniture. A very detailed icon of Pazuzu on the ceiling, the great winged demon god depicted in very lifelike and detailed manner. The icon slowly moved, lines of text flowing around its frame.

"It's not… it's not what it looks like…" Hatate managed to say. It was really just for some research, to channel the power in a more convenient and smooth manner. There was nothing sinister or insane about it at all.

But Momiji apparently decided that it was, in fact, exactly how it looked like. She reached down for her sword and managed to pull it halfway out before Hatate threw her arm forward, the incantation forming nearly by itself. The string of glyphs jumped from her hand on Momiji's face and skittered into her nostril like a wriggling black centipede.

Momiji opened her mouth to scream, but the next moment her expression relaxed and eyes went blank. She, now much more slowly, pulled her curved sword out and dropped her shield to the ground. Hatate stumbled back, and Momiji just as slowly grabbed her sword with both hands, turning the blade towards her chest, an unnatural, mechanical movement.

"My blood to paint the world black," Momiji said evenly and pushed the blade in.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Hatate picked up her now stuffed backpack and put it on. Only the necessities, tools needed to survive for a few days. She would not need anything else anyway.

She glanced over the room again. The texts would burn, and nothing would remain from the wall scribbles when this place goes down in flames. If anyone cares to investigate, they would find only two unrecognizable blackened tengu skeletons. They wouldn't probably even be able to distinguish between crow and wolf bones, not right away in any case.

She stepped to unmoving Momiji and flipped the body over, careful not to get the blood on the sandals. The blade went all the way through, but the handle remained relatively clean and Hatate pulled the sword out with little difficulty.

Hatate unstrapped her cell phone and felt a pang of regret. She would have to leave it here to throw pursuit off the trail for a few days. She muttered a minor warding spell and put the faintly glowing device in the pool of blood, flipping the body over it. It would be damaged just enough to be still recognizable.

The scabbard and shield proved to be a problem, as she first had to wash the blood off them, but she got it done soon enough. The burning phrases in her head pushed her further, whispering solutions to every minor obstacle that was in her way. Stage her own death and assume Momiji's identity for a while. Open the windows to let the air in, the fire would start faster. Leave nothing to chance and deal with Aya personally before leaving.

This was the part she wanted to postpone as much as it was possible. After all, it would be extremely disgusting, like squashing a cockroach with a bare hand.

Hatate strapped the shield to her arm and fastened the scabbard to her waist. She would probably use a spell to save herself from the unpleasant fluids. She quickly decided on how to proceed and made her way towards the basement.

Just as before, Aya was limply hanging in the ropes, but she was conscious this time and weakly lifted her head at Hatate's approach.

"More water…" she pleaded, but the other tengu said nothing, stepping forward and pulling the sword out instead. Aya looked at the gleaming metal with a mix of fear and hope.

"You've decided… to set me free, right?"

"Sorta," Hatate said and stepped behind the support beam, lifting her sword and cutting the main knots that held the rope with a few blows. Aya crumpled to the floor, barely moving.

"Get up, you are free," Hatate said, sheathing the sword. She stepped over Aya and picked up the heavy Pazuzu idol up with a free hand.

Aya tried to stand up, but was too weak to even crawl. Hatate pulled her up by the back of the collar with one of the idol's wings and dragged her upstairs, not caring that she nearly choked the helpless girl by doing so. She dragged her all the way to the living room and dropped her near Momiji.

Aya didn't cry or say anything, staring at the room and the bloody corpse of her colleague with an expression of numb horror.

"I… I am dreaming, right?"

Hatate snickered. From Aya's point of view, it all probably indeed looked like a nightmare. After all, less than a week ago she was all snark and disdain, quipping stupid jokes about Hatate's slowness and lack of skill with the camera. And now… well, her condition spoke for itself.

"It's not a dream. It's divine retribution, bitch" Hatate said and poked Aya in the side with the idol's lower wing. "I asked Pazuzu to make me, like, the best reporter and the most powerful tengu in Gensokyo, and in a few minutes I shall become one. And I achieved it all by myself, no wishes or miracles."

"Hatate, I know you will hit me again… but please, listen for one last time. It is not yet too late to stop even now, listen to me…"

Hatate didn't hit Aya, just smiled cruelly instead and started walking towards the front door. Aya tried to reach out to her, but her efforts amounted to nothing. Hatate turned in the doorway.

"Hatate, please, the idol controls you, fight back, you are stronger than—"

"You laughed at me, treated me like crap, called me talentless and immature. At work, you never helped me or shared experience, and I had to copy your techniques to just keep up. The idol has nothing to do with what's going to happen next. Laters, loser."

Hatate put the idol down and closed the door. Aya still weakly called out for her, but it all didn't matter now. Only the holy quest of Pazuzu was important and allowed no distractions or delays. The temple would be activated, to paint the world black. To make the world perfect.

Hatate put her arms up, and the house lit up, burning runes appearing and crawling on the outer walls before sliding inside through the open windows. Inside, they lost shape, turning into mundane clusters of fire, hungrily consuming all the texts that lined the walls, and one slithered over weakly struggling Aya like a constrictor snake.

The cries from inside were quickly silenced by the roaring flames.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	5. Family

**Shard 5: Family**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The Moriya Shrine in the morning. A place of integrity, power and faith. A suitable place and time to quietly contemplate the world and reflect on the choices in your life that made you a person you are now.

"AAAaaAAaaa…"

Except for, maybe, Sanae Kochiya, whose activity at the moment was tumbling through the air at great speed, trying not to connect with any of the smooth wooden columns that surrounded the shrine.

"_Native God: Froggy Braves the Elements_," Suwako happily declared, creating an enormous cone of cyan-colored raindrop bullets. Sanae managed to stabilize her flight and dodged behind the column, the bullets swarming around.

"Suwako-sama, you can't attack me every time I try to give you vegetables! Parsley is very good for your health!"

"Beee~"

Suwako stuck a tongue out and moved so Sanae would be in the bullet coverage zone. The eldest of native gods, Suwako possessed unbelievable power, which with her looking and acting about eight years old and her hat with silly googly eyes on top created a quite jarring and uncanny combination.

Sanae fired back without announcing a spell card, just her usual pentagram star pattern. The front of blue orbs reached Suwako and she spun, the orbs passing her harmlessly. Sanae used this opportunity to get some distance.

"_Native God: The Red Frog in the Fourth Year of the Houei Era,"_ Suwako chanted, and her form faded from reality, creating a blurry and fast-moving mirror image.

"You can't use such dangerous spell cards in a practice fight!" Sanae shouted, using wind to propel herself to the side from the fast moving image. It left behind a widening trail of red bullets, and Sanae had to change the direction of her flight again.

"I do whatever I want, because I am an ancient omnipotent deity!" Suwako shouted back and flexed her arm, pulling up a solid earth wall from the ground behind Sanae. The priestess turned just in time to create a dampening lens of wind before bodily hitting the wall. The mirror image traced behind her, showering her with bullets.

The wall crumbled, and Sanae fell on the resulting mound of earth, panting and trying to ignore all the stinging impacts from the numerous bullet hits. Suwako pranced around, pointing and laughing.

"I win, I win, no greens today, no greens today! Ahahahaha!"

Sanae groaned and sat up. This particular scene – Suwako being unhappy with something, Suwako attacking her, Suwako winning and happily laughing, it repeated with a very annoying regularity every few weeks. And what was going to happen next was just as inevitable. Sanae mentally started to count down from ten, and the next event triggered on four.

"Suwako Moriya!"

The booming voice came from the shrine entrance, and Sanae didn't have to turn to know who it belonged to. After all, there were only three residents of the shrine and she knew the voice.

Kanako stomped thorough the yard, her gaze locked with Suwako's. The woman towered over the small girl, and her formal blue dress contrasted starkly with the childish frog designs of Suwako's outfit. And the huge rope wheel behind Kanako's back was in no way to be taken lightly.

"Suwako Moriya, you were being naughty and you will be punished accordingly," Kanako said with grave seriousness and grabbed Suwako by the brim of her eyed hat.

"Aa—uu—" Suwako weakly protested, but she knew very well that the goddess of wind was adamant in her decisions. And asking Sanae for help would be a bit hypocritical and strange.

Kanako dragged Suwako inside, no doubt to subject her to some cruel and unusual punishment, like making her watch slides of Luigi Galvani's experiments or leaving her alone in a room full of harmless snakes.

Sanae carefully stood up and frowned at the condition of her hair and sleeves. Now she'd had to spend an hour grooming and mending her clothes. And then a good part of the day cleaning up the exterior of the shrine, because in the morning an express letter from the boundary arrived, scheduling the visit of Ran Yakumo in the evening, and to receive such an honored guest poorly was unacceptable.

Sanae creaked her neck and, after ensuring that the impact and the spell card did not do any lasting damage, went towards the shrine to start her chores.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"So… how is the tea?" Sanae unevenly asked. She expected their guest to be silent, but she never expected that she would be left alone with the fox shikigami for such a long time.

"Reimu makes better," Ran absently answered, looking to the side at the scene that unfolded in the courtyard.

There, under a tight supervision of Kanako, Suwako and Chen were playing, running around and throwing black spells and curses around. Kanako's role was to ensure that this does not escalate into a landscape-altering spell card combat, but the clashing energies nevertheless tore out a few of the pillars.

The situation was far from comfortable. Sanae barely managed to get everything in order before Ran's arrival, dressing up formally and combing her long green hair neatly mere minutes before the arrival of guests. She also didn't expect for Ran to bring Chen with her, and kept wincing slightly at every dull explosion from the courtyard.

"Oh, sorry, did you ask something?" Ran asked, snapping back. Sanae shook her head out of politeness. Ran sipped the tea and sighed. There was clearly something bothering her, but it looked like she tried to postpone the unpleasant conversation as much as possible.

"So, how do you like the shrine? We tried to make it feel more homely for the visitors…"

"Making the shrine more homely will not help your reputation if you are responsible for starting more than one "incident"," Ran said, her voice suddenly cold and low. Sanae blinked at this sudden change of attitude and nervously rubbed the snake clip holding her braid.

"I… I thought we already put the past behind us, didn't we? We are much more careful with our power now, just as we promised."

"Yes, careful," Ran continued with the same cold expression. "So careful you would even cover the evidence of a murder with arson."

Now, Sanae was completely lost. "Um, what?"

"Aya Shameimaru. Hatate Himekaidou. Momiji Inubashiri," Ran said, hammering every word. "The former two are dead, and Momiji is missing. Traces of powerful curses and black magic around Hatate's house, the fading trail leading up the mountain. Suwako, with her ability to create curse gods. Do the math, Sanae."

Sanae just sat there, shocked. She didn't know the tengus that well, but…

Actually, she knew Aya better than she knew most of the other residents of Gensokyo, and Momiji used the shrine as a regular stop during her mountain patrols. They didn't talk much but still, the idea of them being suddenly ripped away from reality felt very unreal and didn't fit in with everything Sanae knew about Gensokyo so far.

Her shock quickly passed, replaced with anger. Regardless of their reputation, this was not a proper way to deliver such news, and in no way an excuse to baselessly accuse Suwako.

"I will not tolerate such attitude on the shrine grounds, from you or anyone," Sanae said, standing up. "Apologize and leave, or I will throw you out."

Ran didn't move, and a smile touched her lips. "If a fight breaks out, our spell cards will level the shrine. Yukari is not known for a gentle approach to fire support. Sit down, Sanae."

"If Yukari is nearby and listening, then I will talk to her, not you," Sanae adamantly said and pointed to the exit. "Or preferably Kanako will, in a more suitable location."

"Yukari can't be bothered with trivial matters like this one. The Mountain of Faith is your domain, this murder is your business, so clean out your own filth," Ran said, slammed down the teacup and stood up, her nine tails menacingly rigid. She stomped out and barked for the Chen to follow her out. Suwako followed them, giggling, and Kanako rushed inside.

"What did you do?" she shouted from the entrance, and Sanae winced.

"She was being rude, so I told her to leave. She may be over eight hundred years old, but she sure acted like Suwako usually does. Oh and Aya is…"

Sanae stopped. The moment of adrenaline passed, and she now felt drained and exhausted. She should have been more careful around Ran, it will no doubt have unpleasant consequences later.

"Well, what about her?" Kanako asked, and Sanae saw that Suwako was already returning to join them.

"I'll tell you tomorrow, I need to sleep on it," Sanae said and picked up the teacups. "Can you get Suwako to bed tonight, please?"

"It's your turn today. Serves you right for treating a guest this way. You should uphold the high standard of the shrine priestess, or else you'll be no better than Reimu."

Meanwhile, Suwako has crossed the shrine courtyard. She happily ran to Sanae and grabbed her sleeve. "Can they visit again, please? Chen is so fun to play with!"

Sanae looked sternly at her. "You shouldn't be friends with them. Ran Yakumo is a bad person."

"No she isn't!" Suwako declared, and the eyes at the top of her hat blinked. "She is just afraid and stressed out from all the stress! Also, she grieves for someone!"

"Well, now you are just making things up," Sanae scolded and pulled her sleeve out. "And it is way past bedtime for ancient omnipotent deities, so go to the pond, or I'll…"

She didn't finish the sentence, making a scary face instead, allowing Suwako's imagination to supply an appropriate horrendous fate that would await her if she would not comply. The girl goddess yelped and ran towards the back of the shrine.

Sanae sighed. She would still have to clean the dishes, examine the building for structural damage that needed immediate repairs with miracles, tuck Suwako in and make sure she was indeed asleep and not wondering the shrine grounds at night.

A thought was put into her head, a thought that it could indeed be Suwako, slipping out at night and killing the tengus by some mistake…

Sanae instantly and resolutely squashed the thought. Not because true faith allowed no doubt but because it was stupid. It was the same as to assume that Suwako was controlled by her hat.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Despite how tired Sanae was from all the events of that day, sleep didn't come to her. Now Suwako – that was another matter, the goddess dozed off without a care in the world the moment she curled on her favorite giant lily pad. Even after all these years, Sanae still couldn't quite grasp the idea that this little frog girl was in fact her grand-grand-something, her living antediluvian ancestor.

Oh, Suwako could be serious when she wanted to, only these moments were so rare and came with so little connection with what actually happened around that Sanae has long ago stopped expecting them. At least today Suwako has spent so much energy on the spell cards and other magic she didn't need to be read ghost stories to go to bed.

Sanae, however, couldn't force herself to fall asleep. There was murderer on the loose, and Sanae kept replaying in her head scenes of her brief meetings with Aya over these last few years. A short interview every few months, some comments on the Gensokyo events every now and then… and now she was murdered, and the murderer was somewhere out there, maybe even close to their home.

Of course, the shrine was a consecrated and shielded ground, so they had nothing to fear from this mysterious black magic user. Kanako was no heavy sleeper either, and was aware of any malicious change in the winds, so leaving Suwako outside made no difference. No one would be insane enough to attack the god anyway.

Sanae heard distant cawing from the outside, and this looped her thoughts back to Aya. There would probably major changes in tengu hierarchy now, the newspaper taken over by some newcomer or lord Tenma himself. And as for the investigation, Ran would probably get to the one responsible soon enough.

The cawing became more prominent and moved closer. It sounded like the flock was quite large, and the sounds became annoying. Sanae normally slept with an open window, but she decided to stand up and close it. The last thing she needed now was pulling an all-nighter because of some crows.

She crawled out the futon and put on her sandals. Even so early in the autumn, the nights could be pretty cold so high on the mountain, so she slept in a long white nightgown which Kanako, in a rare moment of black humor, called "funeral gown" because of its tasteless design.

Sanae stepped to the window and saw that the courtyard was nearly flooded by crows, their bodies covering the ground like large skittering black bugs. They cawed, and sometimes flapped their wings when they lost balance, a moving carpet of feathers.

"Hey guys, could you keep it quiet, I'm trying to get some sleep here," Sanae said, and a few of the crows turned to her. She made a face to them that was supposed to inspire guilt. These birds had some of youkai blood in them and gained intelligence in numbers, so naturally they could understand when the human was unhappy.

However, her words didn't have the intended result. The crows became more agitated instead, and more and more turned their black beady eyes to Sanae. Under that stare, she felt a bit nervous.

And then they attacked, in complete silence and coordination, as if they were given a silent command to do so. Sanae recoiled from the black tide and stumbled further back into the room.

The first crows reached her, clawing and pecking, going for the eyes. Sanae screamed and covered her face, firing blindly a gust of wind. Lucky for her it hit the window, momentarily slowing the advance of the main body of the crow horde.

The dozen or so already inside assaulted Sanae from all sides, leaving deep gashes and puncture wounds. She spun and fell, crushing a few and despite how it hurt, she still managed to activate one of her spell cards.

A powerful blast of wind slammed the birds into walls, floor and ceiling, crushing their bones, and a multitude of lasers pierced those that poured in from the window. Sanae scrambled to her feet and directed an inward blast of wind towards the window, slamming the heavy shutters closed and buying herself a few moments of respite.

She quickly examined herself. Most of the wounds were on her forearms and back, and they all amounted to quite severe bleeding. Sanae felt a little dizzy, searching her drawer for a gohei stick, a symbol of her power as a priestess.

She picked the stick up and brushed the white cloth rectangle attached to it end against her arm. The cloth remained white, and the wounds closed behind it. A miracle, but performing miracles was her day job, and it was not the first or tenth time she healed herself this way after a fight.

The birds kept rattling the shutters, and Sanae quickly healed herself, leaving the minor scratches for later. The shrine was clearly under attack, and she had to ensure Kanako and Suwako were safe.

She moved carefully, and it proved to be a wise decision when a swarm of crows suddenly burst through a paper wall in one of the corridors. Sanae vaporized them with a concentrated star blast of danmaku and continued further towards the back yard. There was clearly an intense battle going on there, but by the time Sanae got there, it was over.

The back of the shrine was heavily damaged, a huge hole blasted in the outer wall. Kanako was there, leaning on the wall section, and Sanae never saw her as hurt as this since their fateful encounter with Reimu two years ago. Her dress was torn, the rope ring lacked a few sections that seemed to be chewed out, and a thin streak of blood came down from her nose.

Then, after stepping around a torn wall chunk, Sanae saw who was responsible for the damage. A dark figure with four black wings, a gleaming shield with a red maple leaf print strapped to its arm. The other arm was a mass of tentacles, coiling around the unconscious Suwako and likewise holding her up as a shield. The figure was slowly backing away.

"Stop, don't attack!" Kanako shouted, noticing Sanae and half-turning. "He channels Suwako's power directly, you'll kill them both this way!"

The figure, continuing to back away, batted its wings, and it sent out such a strong gust of wind Sanae was nearly knocked over. The wind was extremely hot and dry, and carried sand.

"I can't allow it to take Suwako!" Sanae shouted over the wind and tried to use her power to negate the effects of enemy's spell, but it was of no use, the desert wind being absolutely relentless. The sand got in her throat, and she doubled over, coughing and choking.

Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her back behind the ruined wall. Sanae caught her breath and looked up. Kanako crossed her arms and looked at her sternly.

"I must… save her…" Sanae exhaled.

"You'd have to defeat me first for that. Because that thing right now is at least three times as strong, and you need some practice first."

Sanae clenched her teeth. The burning sand got into her wounds, stinging them. The desert wind screeched, forming small tornadoes of spinning grains. Kanako was right, there was no way to fight it and not hurt Suwako in the process.

"Well, now that's just plain cheating," Sanae said. "What happened to Momiji that she became… this?"

"It is not Momiji," Kanako said and wiped the blood from under her nose. "It is a shell, an unholy phylactery of divine power. It is an evil, powerful and very ancient god."

"Another god of wind? What, do you know him personally? "

"Yes, and I wish I didn't. It is Pazuzu, the corruptor of worlds," Kanako spit. "I should have guessed sooner, the temple was obviously his. He needs some sort of a power source to activate it, and he will use Suwako for it. And the world will die."

The wind from the outside abruptly stopped, and the dust in the air dropped to the floor. Kanako snorted the blood in and unsteadily started walking towards the inner rooms of the shrine. Sanae rushed outside, but there was no one there, and the pond was now dry, skeletons of fish and frogs dotting the now exposed and cracked bottom.

"Are you going to just leave? What are we supposed to do now?" Sanae shouted, and Kanako stopped.

"Run."

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	6. Fantasy

**Shard 6: Fantasy**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The rest of the night passed quietly, although Sanae managed to get some sleep only close to dawn, and only after dragging her futon to the basement and bolting the heavy door shut. The sight of the cawing black horrors clawing at her face was not something to be forgotten in fifteen minutes.

The morning passed in sullen mood, Sanae performing assorted miracles to repair the back bearing wall of the shrine and Kanako silently moving around, fastening furniture in place with ropes and wrapping everything fragile in cloth. To add insult to injury the weather was great, light clouds passing over the sun now and then, the wind gently blowing, alleviating the heat.

The wall gradually repaired itself and Sanae went to the kitchen to get some water and rest a bit. Kanako was there, sitting at the table and drumming her fingers on it, staring at the wall.

"You haven't changed your mind, have you?" she asked, avoiding eye contact.

"I am going to that temple to save her," Sanae said, pouring herself some water and sitting across the goddess. "And this is final. And I'd appreciate some real help, and telling me that it is suicide is not helping."

"Well, will it help you if I tell you that any fully operational temple of Pazuzu is a self sustaining semi-intelligent deathtrap? Will it help you to know that millions worshipped him once, and it took combined power of more than forty gods to banish that bastard into the void of the unreality, and it still didn't kill him?"

Sanae sipped the water. "Ah, you managed to seal him off but not destroy completely, how cliché. What's next, he made a ring to store his soul in and sent it into the world to corrupt mortals?"

Kanako didn't answer, looking down at her hands. They slightly trembled. Sanae gulped the water down and stood up.

"I never imagined you would be so afraid," she said, not with disdain but with surprise. "Weren't you the one who told me that fear is the weakness?"

"You were six, and were afraid that a monster under your bed would eat you. I never thought back then that one day you would be seriously considering taking on a three millennia old god alone."

Sanae dismissively waved. "I am not going alone, I'll take someone with me, probably Nitori, she's down the mountain. We'll save Suwako, we'll save Momiji, we'll banish Pazuzu into that void and everything will turn out great, you'll see."

Kanako involuntary snickered. She knew Sanae was just hyping herself up for the upcoming battle, but it all still sounded unbelievably ridiculous.

Sanae smiled and stretched. "And then I will return to my home village, find myself a good husband and settle down, remembering the days of my glory with my children and grandchildren."

"Ah, I see," Kanako said, playing along. "One last job, and only one day till your retirement, eh?"

"But of course," Sanae said with a smile and turned for the door. "Be sure to bake cookies by the time I return."

"Sanae."

The priestess stopped in the doorway, tense. She didn't turn, and the voice of the goddess behind her was dull and hollow. Sanae gulped down a lump in her throat.

"Y…yes, Kanako-sama?"

"The shrine relocates to another world today at dusk, regardless of your or Suwako's presence on the shrine grounds at the time."

"Understood," Sanae said and stepped out, closing the door quietly behind her.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Since her last visit to Nitori a few months ago, the house gained a new very prominent feature – a large heap of assorted metal garbage behind it. As Sanae prepared to land she saw the front door open and Nitori walked out, dragging behind her a heavy heap of fused metal pipes.

Sanae landed in front of her and did a formal bow. The kappa nodded and lowered her head, but Sanae noticed that her eyes were puffed and red, like she was crying a lot recently.

"I am glad you decided to visit," Nitori said. She said nothing else, and started dragging the lump of pipes behind the house. The things she has already dragged have left a prominent trench.

"Do you need help with that?" Sanae asked, gesturing to the pipes, but Nitori shook her head. It looked like it was very heavy, and Sanae, after hesitating for the moment, quickly walked in and grabbed the other end, trying to lift it up.

It didn't budge, and Nitori stopped. "I didn't refuse because I don't want your help. I refused because it is too heavy for a human."

Sanae let go and started walking beside Nitori. The silence became heavy and uncomfortable.

"Look, Nitori, I—"

"And exactly for that very reason I don't want you to console me and tell me everything will be okay about Aya. What I feel is something way too heavy for you to lift."

Nitori went back to the house, and Sanae helplessly followed. Despite being the shrine priestess for quite some time, she was not that experienced with the whole idea of comforting grieving relatives and friends of the departed. And youkai despite looking mostly human sometimes had completely alien mindsets.

Nitori went inside, leaving the door open. Sanae saw that the house was completely trashed from the inside, tubes, wires and something utterly incomprehensible chaotically imbedded in floor, walls and ceiling.

Nitori dragged outside something that looked like a twisted and melted boiler and put it at the start of the trench.

"In case you are wondering then no, I didn't destroy my house out of grief and rage," she said and sat on the boiler, still hiding her eyes. "Ran Yakumo did it. Screamed, accused me of bringing evil to Gensokyo, told me I murdered Aya and Hatate with my own hands. Do you think the same way too?"

The question took Sanae by surprise. Yes, she read in Hatate's newspaper awhile ago that it was Marisa and Nitori who explored the temple and brought back the idol, but she never thought that it was their fault, if anything it was Yukari's fault. And in retrospect, this explained quite a lot about Ran's behavior.

"There are bigger problems right now than finding someone to blame," Sanae said. "Suwako has been kidnapped and brought to the temple you explored. I have less than eight hours to save her, and I can't do this alone."

"Ah, but of course," Nitori bitterly said. "There are always uses for ever-dependent, convenient and agreeable Nitori. Don't you have your great and wise god to help you?"

"My great and wise god is afraid and thinks I am suicidal, stupid and doomed to fail, because I dare to go against an ancient wind god with a silly name and an ominous title. And maybe I am, but I can't just give up and run away. I am sorry I bothered you."

She sharply turned and took off in the air. Time was short, and Sanae mentally sorted through those who she still had time to visit and persuade. Yukari had to be contacted in advance, Reimu probably was at Eientei, helping Marisa with her slow recovery…

Sanae sighed. She knew she was not universally liked, or rather, she was not liked at all. Reimu saw her as competition, youkai didn't treat her well because she was not as understanding or interesting as Reimu, and she didn't make any friends among humans either.

"Sheesh, seriously, you humans are so much more trouble then you are worth," Nitori said slightly out of breath, catching up to her. "Always running around and hurrying to live your short lives…"

She trailed into grumbling, but Sanae really felt relieved. With Nitori as a guide, things will be just a little bit easier.

Sanae decided not to get her hopes up. To think something along the lines of "in the darkness of the future appeared a tiniest sliver of light" would lead only to a swift, gruesome and no doubt ironic death.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

They talked little during their flight, discussing only important issues. Nitori was supposed to provide fire support, stay back and in no case engage the demon god in an open fight, falling back and warning the others if things go awry. Nitori was all too happy to oblige. Most of her combat gear remained intact during Ran's "visit", including the optical camouflage suit, but she clearly didn't have motivation to give her life for the cause she didn't have her heart in.

Despite the sun, the temple didn't gleam anymore. Yes, its surface still remained polished but it somehow gained a darker tint, as if absorbing the sun rays. Kanako could feel that Suwako was held inside all the way from the shrine, and now Sanae felt the presence too, coming from somewhere within the lower terrace of the sandstone pyramid.

And then they were attacked. On the upper level a few slits opened, and swarms of black crows poured out, forming an irregular cloud. Black lightning flashed inside, and the crows started hurling black orbs in a wide spread.

"Nitori, find the way inside, I'll deal with them," Sanae said, and Nitori nodded, pressing something in her chest pocket. Her form blurred, and matched its color with the surrounding environment. Now nearly invisible, she descended to the temple.

Sanae engaged the crows, dodging the swirling orbs with relative ease. There was not that many birds even but they moved fast, and soon Sanae found herself surrounded and had to use a spell card to get some breathing room. The crows exploded, or burned out in the air after a short fall.

The slits at top of the ziggurat opened again, and another flock flew out, a much smaller one. These unholy creatures were stitched from two dead birds and animated with a single glob of darkness. They used all four of their wings, moved much faster than the regular birds and spit out thin needles covered in some oil. Sanae decided to play it safe and destroy them from a distance.

And explosion on the middle terrace signified that Nitori has found the way in. Sanae quickly flew down, and the semi–transparent kappa waved for her to get inside. She did so, and they quickly ran around the corner of the narrow corridor, where Nitori activated another explosive charge, collapsing the entrance behind them.

Sanae caught her breath. So far, their mission went pretty smooth, and the undead crows provided an appropriate warm-up. Nitori pulled out two flashlights from her backpack and handed one to Sanae.

"Sorry, I had to make an entrance for us on this level, the walls below were way too thick," Nitori said.

Sanae smiled and clicked her flashlight on. "Well, what kind of an adventure would this be without braving the deathtraps laid out by the mad architects?"

"It was a pretty good one when I was here with Marisa, and there were no deathtraps at all. We ate apples and it was fun because nobody was dead yet," Nitori answered glumly.

"That's… very useful information, Nitori," Sanae said. The thoughts of Aya's death were clearly diverting kappa's attention from the task, and it could lead to complications later. And as much as Sanae did not want to face Pazuzu alone, she knew that a helpless Suwako would be there, and spreading attention even further and ensuring Nitori's safety too was something beyond her abilities.

"So, can you explain me how to get to the lower level following your markings? Just in case we get separated by a falling portcullis trap or something like that…"

Nitori started explaining, and they even made some small talk on the way, avoiding confrontational topics. Apples and other delicious fruit, the advantages and disadvantages of futons as bedding accessories, how drunk Suika got on the flower festival in the Human Village and what objects did she unconsciously gather around her this time…

They reached the downward staircase and Sanae stopped. She felt Suwako's presence close, and she now felt how hurt the goddess was. She would have no trouble finding her way on her own now.

"Nitori, you will wait for me here. If I do not return in an hour or so, run and warn Reimu and everyone else. It is an order."

Sanae saw that the kappa was about to protest, so she glared as menacingly as she was able to. Under her judging stare, honed by endless practice on Suwako, Nitori deflated and averted her eyes.

"Just… come back safe, okay?"

"Ha! How can I not come back safe if it's the last day before my retirement?" Sanae declared. Nitori obviously didn't get the joke, blinking in confusion.

Sanae turned and ran downstairs, the uneven light above fading quickly. She knew that Nitori would follow her anyway, but she doubted the kappa would be able to find her in the labyrinth. In any case, she would have a head start, and spell battles at maximum power rarely last longer than ten minutes anyway.

The corridors on the lower level were inscribed in wedged runes, and the inscriptions glowed slightly in dark red. Sanae scoffed at how tasteless all of this was. A villain, doing evil for evil's sake, undead crows and "sinister" interior lighting. What's next, pits full of snakes? Mummies, bursting out of sarcophagi?

Sanae quickly moved deeper into the labyrinth, and the marked intersections remained far behind. Guided by the call of the goddess, she passed an inscribed archway, then another one. The red glow intensified, its origin somewhere ahead. Sanae switched off the flashlight and boldly walked forward.

The chamber was large, but its size was far from astonishing or breathtaking. It was cubic in shape, inscriptions on every surface glowing steady red. In the center there was a polished stone slab to which unconscious Suwako was strapped with chains, held together by a single crude padlock. She was injured, thin incisions on her arms and legs, and blood drops slowly formed and just as slowly flew upward, to a spinning orb of red liquid suspended in air above the slab.

The dark four-winged figure was here, brandishing Momiji's curved sword. It didn't look as menacing as the night before, in fact it had quite a small frame, and wings looked a little too large to be comfortable for movement. It turned to face Sanae and giggled.

"So, does anything remain of Momiji inside you, or am I safe to assume you are just an oversized insane undead crow?" Sanae said, drawing her symbol of power.

The thing stopped giggling and cocked its beaked head to the side. It spoke in normal, if a bit distorted, female voice: "Momiji? Oh, right, the sword and shield. Sure, I can be Momiji for you if you are into that roleplay shit."

Sanae cringed. "When Suwako says things like that, Kanako washes her mouth with soap. Now, Momiji, Pazuzu, whatever, here is the deal. You give Suwako back, and I leave."

"Really? Like, for reals? What about the whole "pure shrine maiden" gimmick?"

The creature made quotation marks in the air, which, taking into account her hands were occupied was an amazing feat in itself.

"I am a realist, and this is not the place to have a spell card fight. If that thing explodes…"

Sanae didn't finish, pointing at the blood orb instead. The dark winged creature chuckled. "Oh, you are quite smart, and you hide your fear pretty well. But sorry, I can't give you your frog cutie yet, the core is not charged enough. And besides I, like, have a sword and you don't."

The creature started moving towards Sanae, swinging the sword in air. Sanae carefully moved to the side, looking for ways to get advantage. If that thing manages to push her into a side corridor she will be flattened in an instant.

The creature slowly gained speed, and Sanae jumped up in the air, trying to keep the spinning liquid orb between her and the winged monster. They made a few full circles around it.

"I can keep doing this for hours. Can you?" the creature asked.

"I am a living god. Faith gives me power to endure," Sanae calmly responded, and it clearly infuriated the creature.

"Bullshit! You are just like me, we are the same, we both use faith and borrowed power to get ahead in life! Do you think I really believe all this "Pazuzu" crap? Do you think I really want to make Gensokyo black and perfect? Ha! Once I have enough power I will rule all by myself, and everyone will bow down!"

She lunged forward, and Sanae had to use a minor wind power to dodge. The surface of the orb in the middle rippled dangerously.

"I see there is a lot of human… youkai, whatever remaining in you," Sanae said. "Even if you killed Aya, Hatate and even Momiji, being possessed by an evil god is a pretty good extenuating circumstance at the trial. I will also vouch for you and say you were pretty reasonable."

"And who will be judging? Yukari and Ran?" the creature spit, and Sanae barely dodged another swing. The orb rippled again.

"And Reimu, yes," Sanae said. At the corner of her eye, she saw a faint shimmering coming from one of the entrances to the room. Nitori, in optical camouflage. Sanae decided to not curse her luck and remain calm. Maybe Nitori will really help and it will not all end in some sort of a tragic disaster.

"Of course, and Reimu. And Marisa, and Alice, and all do-gooders will be present. And they will give me some mild punishment, like locking me up for a hundred years or so."

"Well, I think they will give you around forty or so…" Sanae said. She had to keep the creature distracted, but it was harder and harder to do so and remain calm because of the wild sword swings it made. The shimmering that was Nitori moved to the altar and started working on picking the lock to Suwako's chains.

"Ah, but of course. Because forty is, like, so much better," the creature said between swings, trying to form a crooked smile. She had marginal success because of the beak.

"Well, if you are a youkai, then-"

The lock clicked, and the creature sharply jerked her head down. "What are you doing?" she screeched and closed her wings, swooping down.

"Nitori, run! I'll hold it off!" Sanae shouted, and did her best to interpose herself in the monster's path, but it was faster, passing by her. In a flash, it swung towards the shimmering air...

And the air in front of her bloomed with blue and white energy, birthing a spell card. _"Optics: Optical Camouflage", _and intersecting lines of bullets pierced the air, the creature and the orb above.

"No! Nitori, shut it off, shut it—"

In the next moment, a few things happened simultaneously. First of all, the creature did reach with her sword, but the blow didn't come at intended angle and force, mostly harmlessly grazing against Nitori's arm she raised in defense. Second, one of the bullets hit Suwako and she, still unconscious, rolled down from the altar, chains jingling.

And third, the blood orb abruptly stopped spinning, instantly solidified into a crystal and shattered, sending thin red shards out as deadly shrapnel.

The explosion threw Sanae to the wall and knocked air out of her lungs. She fell down, feet first, and screamed when her legs connected with the stone floor. She dropped to her knees and desperately coughed, trying to get some air. The room was quickly filling up with red mist, and the orb was now pure red energy, quickly contracting.

Sanae managed to stand up, and drunkenly swayed towards the altar. The explosion left a piercing pain in her ears, but she still could hear, barely. Her foot hit something, and she saw it was the sword.

In front of her, the dark figure was slowly rising, its wings torn, the right arm blown away, the whole body pierced by shards of the core. Sanae picked up the sword. The creature gave her a pained laugh and dropped the shield.

"Oh yeah come on, like, do it. Pazuzu loves this shit, corruption of pure and faithful. Come on, slice me up, gut me like a fish, enjoy my dying scream, I dare you."

"You are in my way," Sanae said and slowly moved forward, raising the sword up. If it was necessary to get Suwako out of here it was worth it, and corruption be damned.

"Those who live by the sword will die by the sword," the creature said and suddenly threw its remaining arm forward, accompanying it with a guttural growl. Sanae instinctively put the sword up in defense, and saw that a dark string of wedged symbols landed on it, instantly crawling down to her wrist and under her sleeve. Sanae frantically tried to grab it, but the dark phrase was way too fast, skittering up her arm. It reached the face and crawled into the nostril.

"Or by a spell, whatever. It's divine retribution for your overconfidence, bitch," the creature finished.

The world around Sanae lost color while retaining its shape. Everything turned black, the room, inscriptions, even the brilliant orb of energy. Black and completely silent.

And Sanae saw further than this. In a moment of maddening insight, she saw all Gensokyo, and it was black, all of it black, every human, structure or leaf of grass. Everything was black…

Except her. She was filthy and pink, her flesh an impure speck on the beauty of immaculate obsidian darkness. But if she let the blood inside of her to flow freely, if she allowed it to escape her flawed body, then everything would be perfect again. Yes, perfect again.

Sanae slowly turned the blade against her. It had to be a precise blow, right through the heart, and then everything will be perfect again. Yes everything will be perfect again.

"My blood to paint…"

Something was wrong. There was another imperfection, very close, something at the edge of her vision. Sanae slowly turned her head.

It was scrambling to its feet, misshapen and pathetic. It was a small girl, her green dress with frog designs torn and bloody, her face bruised and filled with tears. She was wearing an extremely ridiculous hat, silly googly eyes at the top.

The girl said something, but Sanae could not make out the words. It was so strange, this imperfect girl clashed so much with the black world around, she did not belong here. She reminded her of something, something…

Yes, it was so long ago, when Suwako fell and bruised her knee. And Sanae remembered laughing and telling, "how could you bruise a knee? You are a god!" and Suwako pouted and stomped away into the shrine…

But before that, when she fell, when she saw her, and the eyes were the same, and she said back then, just as she was saying now…

"Sanae, it hurts… help me…"

Sanae doubled over and retched, the world regaining color and sound. She saw black symbols, melting and evaporating from her vomit.

The creature growled and reached out for Suwako, and the girl yelped, pushing the attacker away with such force it flew all the way towards the far wall. Sanae fired a pentagram of orbs and the creature ran to the side, dodging the whole cluster. She disappeared in one of the corridors.

The energy orb contracted to a single point, and set out a thin beam into the ceiling, evaporating the stone and punching through. The beam slowly started to widen.

"It's going to explode!" Sanae shouted. She threw the sword aside and ran to Suwako. "Come on, we have to get out of here!"

Despite her strength, Suwako looked like she was about to faint. Sanae grabbed her by the waist and quite unceremoniously flung her over her shoulder. The pleasantries would have to wait for the times of not exploding divine energy cores.

"Nitori!"

The kappa didn't answer, and Sanae strained her eyes, looking through the red mist. She saw her close to one of the exits, lying facedown on the ground and not moving.

The energy core set out another beam, then another one. It was still nothing compared to a spell card, and Sanae made her way to where the kappa was with relative ease. Not having time to check and assuming Nitori was alive, despite the fact there was a literal pool of blood under her, Sanae picked up the kappa by the backpack with her free arm and dragged her towards the nearby corridor entrance.

She slowly moved into the maze, making a few corners. Out of breath, she stopped and put Nitori down. On her shoulder Suwako was breathing quietly, having lost consciousness again. Sanae leaned down and grabbed Nitori's shoulder.

"Okay, Nitori, here is the thing. There was a man on the outer world who could bring back the dead with miracles, one man in history. After him no one and I am no exception. Give me something to work with."

She held her breath and turned the body over. Nitori was pale as linen, her dress was bloody and there was a large thin crystal protruding out of her chest but she was alive, breathing shallowly and rapidly.

"Okay, I can work with this," Sanae said, trying to remain calm. "I did something like this three times already and even succeeded once so no problem."

Nitori's eyes fluttered open, and she looked around in daze. "Sanae… did we win?"

"Not yet. We still all have to get out alive in time, and for that I'd have to do a little miracle. It's no problem, really, I am as close to my god as I can ever be, and you basically have a shard of divinity in your right lung. No problem."

"Just… leave me… save… yourself…"

Sanae glared at her. "Things like that are not said in my presence with a straight face. This is not a badly directed Vietnam war movie."

"What's… Vietnam?"

"A great place for a vacation," Sanae said dryly and grabbed the shard. "Very welcoming locals."

Sanae felt power flowing through her. From Suwako, from Kanako, from the shard in her hand, raw chaotic power, without shape or purpose. She was there to give this power purpose, to give it all for one person that needed it. Her desire, made real. A miracle.

"Nitori, live," Sanae uttered.

The shard melted, divine energy pouring into the wound. The blood evaporated, and color returned to Nitori's face. Sanae heavily exhaled and nearly fell over, but kept her balance.

"Thank… thank you, I don't know how to repay-" Nitori started, but Sanae cut her off.

"Repay me by leading us out of here. Seriously, what's with "doomed wounded friend" clichés? It could only be worse if the creature would "unexpectedly" try to attack me right now from behind. Come on, get up, we have an explosion to outrun."

Nitori unsteadily stood up. This human was obviously feverish and concussed, so she sprouted some nonsense. In any case, they really had to run, so she quickly checked herself and led Sanae to the marked intersection in the distance.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The temple didn't explode. Well, the core did, loudly, and the resulting firestorm probably reached all three levels, but the structure remained solid. And to say that the whole mountain shook would be likewise an exaggeration.

The explosion didn't occur that soon either, Sanae, Nitori and Suwako being nearly a mile away at the time. Sanae didn't take any chances, pushing herself forward and refusing to give the still unconscious Suwako away for Nitori to carry. The kappa silently tagged along, as Sanae didn't look like she was in the mood to talk.

The finally stopped and landed near a small mountain stream. Sanae gently laid Suwako down on the grass and sat down by the stream, leaning heavily to a tall boulder. She closed her eyes.

"S... Sanae?"

"I am not dying, just tired. Give me fifteen minutes of silence, please."

Nitori piped down. She still knew so little about humans, and kept meeting only the weird ones. They kept going over their limits, straining their fragile bodies like there was no tomorrow, Marisa in particular. At least Sanae had the reason for her latest actions…

Nitori sighed. This all was so troublesome and distracting. She would have to now find the way to repay this human for her kindness, probably with some new invention, and with her house trashed it would take a few weeks to do something acceptable. Well, the least she could do now was to watch over them while they slept.

Fifteen minutes have passed, and Nitori carefully shook Sanae by the shoulder. The priestess woke up and groaned, shielding her eyes from the low hanging sun.

"Aww, and was having such a wonderful dream. I had four black wings, was on a battlefield full of corpses, and the black sun was in my hand," she said, and Nitori stumbled back, eyes wide.

"It was a joke," Sanae continued and slowly went to the stream, to drink and splash water on her face. "Although, I'll admit, not very funny. Marisa is the master of such humor, not me."

Sanae knelt to Suwako and pulled the girl over her shoulder again. Nitori fidgeted.

"Can I… Can I come to the shrine with you? I'd really want to repay you for saving me..."

"Sorry, but no," Sanae said, wincing slightly.

"But I… I can do stuff! Really professionally! I can repair, and I can clean, and I can watch over sleeping people, in a non-threatening and in no way creepy manner! I can…"

Sanae sighed. "I didn't say it because I don't like you or don't need your help. I said it because in a few hours, the shrine moves away from Gensokyo. I hate long goodbyes and am still tired as a... well, a very tired person."

This was unexpected, and Nitori couldn't find any words to say. Sanae was leaving? But why, they have won, they've defeated the horrible evil demon! Well, it escaped, but Suwako was safe, and there was no need for that! There was no need for Sanae to disappear!

"Oh great, you are crying now, just wonderful," Sanae said sadly. "I'd like to give you a hug, but with Suwako on my shoulder it would look silly."

She stepped forward and wiped the tear from Nitori's cheek with her free hand. "Come on, don't cry. It could go better but it is still our victory, and we won thanks to you. And maybe the shrine will return again in a few years, Suwako really likes it in here."

"Don't… don't go…"

Sanae shrugged with one shoulder. "It is not my shrine, it is Kanako's. What she says – goes, and I have had enough of fighting gods for today. Good luck with your experiments."

"Goodbye," Nitori quietly said and hung her head. Sanae turned and rose up in the air. She waved goodbye and slowly gained altitude, the small blue figure of the kappa turning into a dot and disappearing in the distance.

Sanae reached the shrine half an hour later and nearly collapsed in the courtyard. Light as Suwako was, carrying her for miles was definitely not an undertaking to make without preparation. Sanae laid the girl down where she stood, the ground looked soft enough.

She saw Kanako exiting the shrine and straightened herself. Well, pride may be the deadly sin, but she really felt proud at the moment, after all, she did something that was thought impossible by her god.

Kanako stopped in front of her, examining her attentively. She then looked at Suwako, nodded to herself, and went back to the shrine. "The transfer is nearly ready, bring Suwako inside."

There was a pause. Then Sanae threw her arms up. "What? This it it? I risk my life, battle a god, and this is what I get in return? Really? Where is my laurel wreath, my praise, my reward? Where is my "thank you"?"

Kanako stopped and turned her head. "You allowed Pazuzu to touch your soul and taint you. Be thankful I am not throwing you out, and will help you cleanse yourself over the years."

"Oh really? Well how about I just walk away, and you can run with your tail between your legs all you want! How about I remain here and squash this evil once and for all? How about that?"

"Do whatever you want," Kanako said coldly. "Walk away and start your noble fight. Research about him, learn how to counter his spells. Then learn how to actually cast them. Slowly begin to understand and accept his goal. Slowly begin to understand and accept his methods. Fall."

"I will never—"

"You are a smart girl, you will find your own, unique and unprecedented way to fall," Kanako cut her off and continued towards the shrine doors. She stopped in front of them and slightly turned once again.

"It will feel so great, to fall. You will be so free, so happy, all the way down. Right until impact, or maybe even then, thanking Pazuzu for giving you a chance to shine so bright. So choose, Sanae, and choose now, happiness or faith."

Kanako opened the door and stepped inside. Sanae just stood, feeling no, not enraged, not hurt, just stupid. That's what she gets? She went so far, she defied fate itself, she achieved nearly a perfect victory and all she gets is a lecture on morals as a reward?

Kanako leaned out of the shrine doors. "Oh, and Sanae, I also baked cookies, so the choice is really between eternal damnation and cookies. Choose wisely."

It was said with such serious, even morose expression, that Sanae couldn't help but snicker, then laugh. Well, that definitely put her choice into a different perspective.

Sanae leaned in and picked Suwako up, carrying her bridal style this time. Everything will be fine in Gensokyo without her, Reimu will take action and purge the remnants of this "evil" Kanako is so afraid of in no time, maybe by the end of the year even. And they will return, and have a great party as a celebration.

She carried Suwako inside, and the smell of the freshly baked cookies welcomed her.

And an hour later the shrine shook, rose up in the air and vanished, taking a good chunk of the mountain with it.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	7. Friendship

**Shard 7: Friendship**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The Garden of the Sun never recovered from the death of its custodian. In any other time crushed flowers would rise up again, and new ones would grow in place of burnt ones. The garden would heal completely in a week if not sooner.

But not this time. The cut sunflowers lay dead, withering in the rays of the sun, and from the center of the blast a black blight spread on leaves and stems of flowers and grass. Lesser fairies and youkai moved further and further from the epicenter, and some already considered trying their luck elsewhere. And no one ever wandered to the crater in the middle except for a single, constant visitor.

Wriggle Nightbug landed at the dry, scorched earth around the crater. She was carrying a heavy pot of flowers in her hands, dirt on the sleeves of her white shirt. She slowly made her way towards a small shrine near the crater and knelt in front of it.

The shrine was crude, a few planks serving as a mostly useless rain cover for a portrait of Yuuka. It was an old photo of her smiling, cut out from some old newspaper issue. It was the third one already, as the first one got washed away by the rain and the second one was stolen a few days ago.

Wriggle sighed, looking in pity at the pot she brought in yesterday. The flowers have withered and dried out completely, and the soil sprouted jagged cracks, dead insects around. The place seemed to destroy any life that dared to come closer.

"Yuuka… why won't you come back, Yuuka..." Wriggle whispered.

Yuuka was always so nice. She always smiled, and encouraged, and gave useful advice. She often sat down and allowed Wriggle to put head on her knees. She shielded them both from the sun with her parasol and gently touched Wriggle's antennas, always so careful.

And now all that left of her were a few newspaper articles and photographs. Nobody spoke well of her, and the humans even went so far they made an event celebrating her death. They didn't call it such, but it was obvious anyway.

Now Aya and Momiji, those were mourned, and given a proper farewell ceremony. There were speeches said, and tears shed, and not only by the tengus. But Yuuka… not one good word about her. And no one seemed to care about what was happening to the garden either.

Wriggle saw that the flowers she brought with her were already starting to bend slightly and a few black spots appeared on the leaves. She decided to find and bring stronger ones next time, the ones that would at least last a day.

Suddenly, a very unpleasant and very loud sound of torn cloth came from the side. Wriggle bolted up and saw there was a gap appearing at the edge of the clearing, but unlike thin and silent gaps Yukari opened this was jagged, and the reality seemed to scream from such treatment.

Wriggle gasped, backing away from the opening tear. A few days ago, a full-scale bounty hunt started in Gensokyo, a search for an evil dark entity with four wings and one arm. It was declared by Reimu to be the highest threat priority target and every youkai or human had to report the appearance of it to the Hakurei shrine directly, only report and in no case to attack or take any other action.

There was something emerging from the gap, and Wriggle realized she had no time to escape, so she instead ducked at the edge of the clearing, curling up and covering her white shirt with her cloak. She could only hope it would make her not to stand out so much against the brown background of the dried sunflowers.

The creature emerged, or rather stumbled awkwardly from the gap, and Wriggle saw that it was in fact no other than Yukari. The elder youkai quickly regained her balance and turned to the gap, grabbing its edges with bare hands and narrowing it with what looked like extreme difficulty.

The reality tear screeched, turning first into a jagged line, then vanishing. Yukari turned and looked around, her eyes glazed over and unfocused.

She didn't notice Wriggle and slowly walked to the Yuuka's crude memorial. She leaned in and tore the photo out.

"How dare you?" Wriggle shouted, forgetting for a moment that she was next to one of, if not the most powerful, youkai in the whole Gensokyo.

Wriggle burst out of the dried sunflowers and stomped towards Yukari, who for some reason looked completely flabbergasted. She froze with the photo in her hand and offered no resistance even when Wriggle tore it from her hand.

"How dare you desecrate the memory of Yuuka?" Wriggle shouted to Yukari's face, and it seemed to bring her back to senses. She stepped back, blinked a few times and focused her gaze on Wriggle.

"I do whatever I want, because I am Yukari," she said woodenly. "And you are obsessed. You must forget Yuuka and return to… whatever you lesser youkai usually do."

Wriggle clutched the photo to her chest. "Never! And you… you are evil! I am telling Reimu on you! You are not Yukari, you are that thing taking her form!"

Wriggle ran away blindly, her eyes full of tears. She didn't care when the sunflower leaves slapped against her face or when she collided with the stems. The horrible evil thing tried to take Yuuka away from her, and she had to tell Reimu, she had to tell everyone!

She ran, expecting for the thing to chase her, but it never did, and soon enough Wriggle took flight, daring to look back at the crater. Yukari was standing at the edge, numbly staring down.

Wriggle hugged the photo even tighter and flew towards the Hakurei shrine as fast as she could.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The shrine was closed for visitors, a large table set out in the courtyard instead. The table was covered in maps and assorted sheets, blank or filled out. A small crowd of humans and youkai gathered around, and Reimu was visible in the middle, arguing about something with a villager that looked like a fisherman. Everybody looked quite agitated, not shouting yet but close.

"Reimu! Reimu!" Wriggle shouted, landing nearby and trying to push to her. "Yukari is evil! Yukari is the monster!"

"Get in line," a youkai girl in a red dress with prominent leaf motifs said. "You are not the most important one in here."

"No, it is very important! I must tell Reimu! Yukari stole the picture of Yuuka! She is evil!"

To Wriggle's rotten luck, the commotion around quieted down a bit right before her shout, turning into ominous silence after her words. The humans glared at her and parted, leaving Reimu a clear line of sight at Wriggle.

"Reimu, punish her," said the fisherman.

Reimu slammed her hand on the table. She spoke, in a quiet voice, but the barely contained rage in it was obvious.

"Those who have seen the dark creature with their own eyes - stay. Everyone else, the ones who have heard of it flying overhead, seen a shadow move, heard from the neighbors, caught weird fish today, observed the strange black spots on fruit or witnessed Yukari being her usual self… these people leave, right now. Or else."

Wriggle, to put it lightly, was not the wisest youkai out there, but even she knew better than to tempt fate twice. Under the damning stare of the villagers she backed away and hurried towards the forest.

She needed to tell everyone! About Yukari, how she was the dark monster. Or maybe the monster already consumed her, and wore her skin as a suit! The horror!

Unfortunately, Wriggle didn't find Mystia, neither at her usual singing places nor at home, and the home that belonged to the Mischievous Trio of fairies was closed as well. Puzzled, Wriggle decided to return home and wait a bit.

She lived in a large hollowed out fallen tree trunk. Naturally, her being a youkai of bugs, the whole area around was brimming with insects, them being both guardians and friends. At least it normally was, but on that particular day it was unnaturally quiet.

Confused, Wriggle searched around. The nests of the bugs were empty, even the one with a family of newlywed stag beetles. Everywhere it looked like the bugs have left in a hurry, and when Wriggle walked closer to the hollow tree she saw that the front door was slightly open.

And that could mean only one thing. The Yukari monster has returned, ready to exact revenge. It was probably waiting inside, sharpening its dark talons and cackling madly, surrounded by unnatural jagged gaps.

Wriggle's heart raced as she walked towards the door of her home, drawn to it as if by magic. She had no choice but to confront the monster, and destroy it if needed. She would not allow the memory of Yuuka to be stolen!

Wriggle reached for the handle and yanked the door open, shouting "Uwaa!" to startle the intruder.

"AAAA!" the intruder, who also happened to be Mystia Lorelei, screamed and threw her arms up in panic. The newspaper she was holding just a moment ago flied up and landed back on her head, knocking her hat down.

Wriggle blinked, and silence flooded the scene. Mystia froze with her arms up, and the newspaper slowly came to rest on the floor. The headline of the topmost article read "Yuuka Kazami, mysteriously murdered", and paragraphs were highlighted or outlined with thick red pencil.

"Why, Mystia, why?" Wriggle cried out, striking a pose.

"Um, what?" Mystia said after a pause, putting her arms down.

"Why did the monster had to consume you from the inside too? Why are you in my house, and why did you highlight the newspaper? Why are you in your school uniform?"

Mystia was indeed in her school uniform, which looked exactly like her normal outfit, except dark brown instead of pinkish, and a bit more plain and formal. She also had a simple olive backpack on, fit for the winged humanoids to wear.

"Err…"

"The first question is the most important one. Why, Mystia?"

Mystia composed herself, lifted her hat up by the tiny wings on top and put it on. "Wriggle, I am me, you can check by asking anything only two of us know."

"But what if it has all your memory too? What if you are almost exactly you, only evil and insane? What if your song is twisted like Yukari's gaps, and you now have the ability to stop people's hearts with it? What if your talons are now coated in deadly poison? What if…"

Wriggle continued, on and on, and the tower of her theories grew higher and higher, going up in spirals. Mystia patiently listened for a minute or so, then went a bit further into the house and poured some water in two glasses from a bucket. She went back and offered one to Wriggle.

"… and what if I, myself, am already unconsciously controlled by the monster, hosting in myself dream larvae of the dark seeds of pain? What if… oh hey, water. Thanks."

Wriggle took the glass and gulped it down, finishing it with a loud "pwah". "And what if-"

"And as for your two other questions," Mystia interjected and took the glass back. "I am here to remind you that today we must attend school, because there is an important field trip, and when I got here the door was open and the newspaper was here."

Wriggle stopped, taking the information in. Indeed, Keine said yesterday about something important, but a little flour bug crawled on Wriggle's desk right at the time, and she got distracted by talking to it. Oh well, what else are friends for, then?

"So get changed, because you are dirty like a miner, and let's get going. I'll wait outside," Mystia said and walked towards the door.

She left, and Wriggle sighed. Keine will probably be upset, and someone did break into her home and scared all the bugs off. And that highlighted newspaper looked extremely creepy.

Wriggle picked it up, folded and tucked into one of the cabinet drawers. Getting to school was more important right now.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

If someone said, for example, five years ago a sentence like "The school was closed today, because youkai studied," that person would be laughed at at best, and declared criminally insane at worst.

And yet now, a proper response for that sentence would be an eye roll and a groan. Such was the uncomfortable reality of today, all thanks to one person, Keine Kamishirasawa.

This serious, well meaning youkai came to the human village a few years ago and quickly grew fond of the humans living there. Being a scholar and an educated person all around, she quickly gained position as the history teacher of the village school, acting as a protector and guardian of the whole settlement. Few people knew of her affinity to the moon and bestial heritage, and when she appeared on the streets, her long midnight blue dress shuffling around, the people bowed and greeted her politely.

Until she decided that youkai also deserved education.

Once a week, usually on Saturday, the school became off-limits to humans, and minor youkai, greater fairies, and even lesser fairies that were smart enough to discern two apples from three – all of them gathered inside and the tutoring started. Of course, it was not normal tutoring, with bells and classes, but Keine still did it with annoying persistence. Humans whispered, spread rumors, and waited for the "incident" to happen. It didn't, and Keine didn't seem to mind the odd looks.

Normally, the youkai attended as they liked, skipping weeks and sometimes even months at a time. Rumia was the greatest offender, she once flunked for nearly half a year, and Keine had to search for her personally and drag her in by force. Cirno usually was absent in the summer, and the three mischievous fairies usually delegated one.

However, that day all were present, forming a tight circle around Keine in front of the school. They buzzed, shoved each other around and generally showed impatience.

"Where are they? What can be taking them so long?" Cirno said, pacing around and nearly scratching others with her sharp icicle wings. "What can they be doing there?"

"They are probably doing naughty stuff!" Sunny Milk said cheerfully, showing her cute fangs. "They ditched us and are causing mischief."

"You only think about mischief," Daiyousei said. Being the oldest fairy around, she was also the most reasonable one. "Wriggle probably visited the garden again in the morning and again got dirt all around."

"Or the dark winged monster already ate them!" Rumia helpfully suggested.

"And the monster is Alice!" Cirno shouted. "Or it is Reimu!"

"Now, now, children, calm down" Keine spoke. "Nobody was eaten. Look, they are already flying in here. I am sure Wriggle was distracted by important business."

Wriggle and Mystia indeed flew in, landing in front of Keine. They looked like they were in great hurry, and tried to catch their breaths, bowing simultaneously.

"We are late, sorry, Keine-sensei!" they both said just as simultaneously. They expected to be scolded, but Keine said nothing, and Daiyousei noticed in her eyes something that looked nearly like pity.

"You are forgiven," Keine said and stepped back, so all present could see her. "Now, what I am going to say is very, very important. Listen carefully, especially you."

She pointed at the back, at the quiet and nameless sunflower fairy. That particular one, true to her name, was carrying two sunflowers and attended classes for the last two months, not skipping anything. She said very little, and was so dumb she couldn't count past four. Why she kept such a flawless attendance record was a mystery of the ages.

"There is a very, very dangerous criminal on the loose in Gensokyo," Keine continued. "We will catch him very soon, but until then classes will be held every day for your protection."

She fell silent and awaited a storm of disapproval to hit her. It did, all of the fairies shouting at once. Keine stoically listened, and heard a lot of new things about her, the criminal, the whole education system, the oppression of freedom and other assorted accusations.

She found the moment when the wave of accusations lessened a bit and shouted over the commotion.

"Calm down! Calm down! We are not locking you up in school, and it is only for a few days! I will make it all very, very interesting, I promise!"

Cirno, who was already starting to pull out a spell card, tucked it in. "Well, how so?"

"I plan on making a field trip almost every day. Today, we will visit Eientei and talk to Marisa! We will learn how humans treat their sick and injured, and Tewi will show you some cool tricks. And tomorrow… well, it is a secret!"

The commotion started again, opinions now divided. Keine sighed, she expected something like this. She also was absolutely sure that if she would insist on locking up everyone in school like Reimu told her to, she would be literally torn apart.

The fairies formed small circles, and it looked like they were treating the whole thing like an election to the village council. Two parties formed, pro-education and pro-freedom, Daiyousei and Cirno being the respective leaders. A heated debate and verbal fight started for the support of hesitating Luna Child, and in the end, the pro-education party won by one vote. The opponents shook hands and reconciled as friends.

"All right, let's go then!" Keine announced. "Everyone, check your snacks, we wouldn't want to abuse the hospitality of princess Kaguya."

She rounded everyone up and they took off, in a tight safe formation.

And across the street, inside the house she chose as a temporary shelter, Hatate Himekaidou put away the binoculars and laughed, a cruel, growling laugh.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Keine stayed true to her promise and tried to make the trip as exciting as possible. Tewi juggled and showed some tricks with smoke and mirrors, Eirin gave a short lecture about how fragile humans are and how dangerous is it as much as punch them, and then the fairies broke into small groups to wander Eientei, under tight supervision, of course.

Marisa didn't fell that good on that particular day, so Keine decided that only those who really wanted to visit her would, and only Daiyousei and Mystia signed up.

Wriggle remained with Tewi. They sat on the thick carpet in one of the rooms, and Tewi pulled out a few cups and a small shiny metal ball.

"So you know of this game?" she asked. Wriggle found her voice to be quite unpleasant.

"Uh… well, yes, I have to guess, right?"

"You have to know where the ball goes. Round and round it goes, where it goes, nobody knows…"

She put the cups bottom up and put the ball under one of them, starting to shuffle them around. Wriggle kept her eyes on the cup, but the movement became faster and faster, and she lost it.

"Guess," Tewi said and put the cups in line.

"Center."

Tewi flipped the cup. Empty, and the ball was under the left one. They played again, and Wriggle lost a few more times. She started to get annoyed.

"So, is there a point to this?"

"Well, yes," Tewi answered, starting another round. "It is symbolic of people's expectations in life and what they get in the end. Also, Aya lost one hundred and eight times and was found dead a few days later."

"Okay, this is not a funny joke,' Wriggle said, backing away a few inches. "I'm going to leave now."

"Guess one last time," Tewi said, stopping the cups abruptly. "Only try to guess an empty one this time."

Wriggle pondered her choice. She could of course just leave, but maybe it was the right way to get the ball? What was her reward for getting the ball anyway?

"Center."

Tewi flipped the cup. Empty.

"See? You just won. You wanted nothing and you got nothing. Rejoice!"

"You are creepy," Wriggle said and went for the door. "Extremely creepy."

Tewi didn't respond, shuffling the cups again in front of her, her ears flopping with her movements. Wriggle closed the door and saw Mystia at the end of the corridor. She waved.

"So, what's up?" Wriggle asked, approaching.

"Talked to Marisa about the meaning of life," Mystia answered seriously.

"And?"

"And what?"

"What is the meaning of life?" Wriggle clarified, annoyed. She never expected for Eientei to be so filled with symbolic nonsense, it made her head hurt.

"Life has no meaning, it is a thankless, perilous journey, full of pain and suffering. Death is a sweet release, ze~," Mystia said with a straight face.

"Really?"

"That's what she said. Also, she wanted to talk to you about something. Ask someone to lead you to the medical wing."

Mystia went down the corridor, where Eirin was showing some red things in medical jars to Star Sapphire, and joined the lecture. Wriggle inwardly sighed. She knew very well what she will be talking about with Marisa.

She tried to avoid the meeting, but Mystia already told everyone Marisa's request, so Wriggle had no choice but to comply. She was escorted by Reisen, another of Eientei rabbit lieutenants, to the ward and left in front of the door with a plaque "M. Kirisame". Reisen knocked and opened it, offering for Wriggle to enter.

The room was spacious, with large, almost ceiling-high windows. Most of the room was occupied by a large white bed, Marisa looking so small in comparison it looked like she was drowning under the sheets. Tubes were around, leading from the bed to overturned medical bottles suspended high on racks.

"Heey…" Marisa said with a weak smile, turning her head. She looked flushed, but her cheeks were sunken. "Isn't this our favorite bug youkai? How are things?"

Wriggle clenched her teeth. She never liked Marisa, they never had anything in common, and now they had something very unpleasant that connected them – Yuuka. It was no use to avoid the subject, and Wriggle decided to plunge right in.

"Yuuka is dead," she said plainly. "This is how things are. And she was killed because of you."

Marisa stopped smiling. "Well, I'd say I am sorry, but she brought it on herself, and you can't disagree with that. And by the way, I really feel a bit sorry, despite who she was and what suffering she put me through."

"I don't buy it," Wriggle defiantly said. Marisa sighed.

"Look, I really didn't want to talk about Yuuka… ah, to hell with this, I really did want to. But I wanted to talk about you, and how you are taking it. You loved her, didn't you?"

"I'm leaving," Wriggle said, turning.

"Okay, okay!" Marisa weakly shouted. "You never loved her, you just were subconsciously attracted to her because she also had green hair. I'm sorry, I just…"

Wriggle didn't answer, walking to a door, and Marisa propped herself on one arm, speaking quickly.

"Look, people do crazy things out of grief, but don't do anything stupid, okay? Reimu nearly lost it when I got here, and Yukari visited a few days ago and told me you are planning something really insane. She asked me to-"

"I'm fine. Yukari is insane, not me. Get well soon," Wriggle spit over her shoulder and walked out, slamming the door behind her. Well, she tried, but the door has a special mechanism to prevent that, so it just loudly clicked.

What was it with everyone lately? It was perfectly acceptable to mourn a person's passing. What was wrong was to forget about it a week later, and treat Yuuka like she never existed.

Wriggle spent the rest of their visit to Eintei alone, sulking on the chair in one of the rooms and talking to moths. Keine prolonged their stay as long as it was reasonably acceptable, and then they politely left, gathering in front of the mansion.

"Now listen to me, it is very, very important," Keine said. "Go straight home now, don't wander around. I suggest you don't go alone, and stay in groups of at least two until all this situation resolves itself. And come to school early tomorrow, we'll have more fun!"

There was worry in her voice, but Wriggle didn't care. The fairies broke into groups, and Mystia walked closer.

"So, would you like to stay in my house for the night?" she offered.

"Sleepovers are stupid and Keine is stupid," Wriggle answered. "None of you understand that the real threat is Yukari."

"Oh, come on, that's taking it too far. Look, even the dumb sunflower fairy is going with Rumia. Come on..."

Mystia took Wriggle's hand, but she pulled it away and glared.

"Leave me alone. You don't understand. None of you understand!" Wriggle finished with a shout and took off, quickly gaining in speed. Mystia sighed and shook her head.

"Go after her," Keine said, coming from behind. "Yukari told me few days ago she is really unstable and needs to be looked after."

"Wriggle is fine, and forcing her anything will only make it worse," Mystia said, turning. "And besides, why would that creature be interested in us? It's not like we are important or anything…"

Keine shrugged. "I think so too, but it is better to play it safe. It's better to overreact than have another funeral, you know. Want to come over for tonight?"

"Nothing is going to happen tonight," Mystia said harshly. "And tomorrow, and the day after it. And if you don't rub it in her face, Wriggle is slowly going to get over the whole Yuuka business. And you should really be telling me this, Keine-sensei, not the other way around."

She took off too, her winged form quickly disappearing in the distance, and Keine sighed. Kids, trying to play adults, how typical. They always think they know better.

She decided not to dwell on it. What's the worst that could happen anyway?

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The door was slightly open again and light was coming from inside, but Wriggle didn't care. The day was long, she was tired, and it was probably Mystia or Keine anyway.

What was that with everyone? Well, at least Mystia had the tact to never mention Yuuka in conversation, but the other fairies, humans, Keine… it was like they all treated her like a spiritual successor to Yuuka's outlook on life, waiting for her to snap. Rumia was more dangerous, for gods' sake!

Wriggle opened the door and walked inside, kicking the shoes off. She then looked up and froze.

The dark creature was sitting in the middle of the room. It had four black wings, torn and moldy, its body covered in scales, feathers and spiky, tattered fur. Its face was distorted, a crooked beak where a nose should have been, but the eyes were mostly normal, round and brown. It didn't have a right arm, not even a stump, and was holding a newspaper from before in her left. To add to the bizarre image, it was wearing a bright and tasteless backpack over the shoulder.

"My, you are really without a care in the world," the creature spoke in a strange, distorted female voice. "I thought you would show some common sense, like, really."

Wriggle stood, mouth agape. That was it, the creature was here. The creature was here. The creature was here! It was here! Here!

Wriggle screamed, and wailed, and called for help, too afraid to turn and run away. The creature showed no reaction, turning to the newspaper and flipping the page.

"Help me! Heeee—"

"Will you stop that? I cast a silence spell around, and a few locking glyphs. You won't get help or escape."

Wriggle shut her mouth and slowly backed away. Was this some kind of an intricate torture? Why wouldn't the monster attack and tear her apart?

"Did you read the newspaper? I left it here, like, on purpose. I'm Hatate by the way, call me Hatate."

Wriggle gulped. "You… you wrote about Yuuka?"

The monster, or rather Hatate, looked at her. "Oh, so you did read it. Did you like it? It's my, like, magnum opus, the pinnacle of my success as a journalist."

"I… don't read newspapers, I've got nothing to compare. I bought them, because there were pictures of Yuuka, and…"

"Then it was the best you have read in your life. Come closer."

Wriggle did so, like a mouse mesmerized by a snake. Hatate turned the newspaper to him. "Read these lines," she ordered.

Wriggle focused on the text. She could not read well, but she read it before, and knew what was written there. It was the start of the second column about Yuuka's murder, an interview with Chen. Wriggle cleared her throat.

And she couldn't read. The letters blurred and shifted into incomprehensible mass, escaping her sight. She knew the words were there, the interview started with "Hello, I am Chen, nyaa~", but…

"I… I…"

"You can't read it," Hatate said, taking the newspaper back. "And no one can. Not even after I start flaying their skin to make them read. Not even when they are dying, they still can't read it."

Wriggle just stood, dumbstruck, and Hatate continued.

"Keine Kamishirasawa was ordered by Yukari or Reimu to eat all the history about Yuuka. I do not know for sure, but these things are starting to happen. Little things. In articles, in log books, everywhere. She will slowly fade away and disappear, like she never existed."

Wriggle gulped again. Yuuka will disappear forever? Yuuka will be erased? She was already killed, how could they do it to her? How could they?

"I… don't want her to disappear," Wriggle choked out.

"Well, good," Hatate said, folding the newspaper. "But there is only one way to make it so. You have to give up your soul to Pazuzu and allow his words to possess you after I die, as my time is running out. I'll shine once again, right before the end, but you will have to continue what I started. Are you ready?"

Wriggle didn't get any of it. Pazuzu? Possession? Soul?

But something made sense for her. Everyone, absolutely everyone wanted her to forget about Yuuka, everyone except this strange monster. Even Mystia wanted to, even though she never said it.

Wriggle nodded, and Hatate slid the backpack down her arm. She unzipped it and pulled a heavy bronze idol out, a winged humanoid with his four wings slightly bent and his beaked face heavily scratched.

"Say 'Pazuzu' three times and make a wish to surrender your life and soul to him," Hatate ordered.

It didn't look silly. If anything, the idol looked ominous, and its beaked face formed a cruel and merciless expression.

"Pazuzu, Pazuzu, Pazuzu…" Wriggle spoke, her throat dry. "I…"

"Wish to surrender my life and soul to you," Hatate impatiently said.

"I… I wish for Yuuka to be alive again!" Wriggle suddenly screamed, breaking into tears. "I wish to always remember her, to never forget! I wish-"

Hatate, in one lighting-fast motion, picked up the idol and hit Wriggle on the head with it. The small youkai tumbled back, blood and tears running down her face, one of the antennas broken.

"Tch, what an idiot, like, really. But it will probably do, my wish was also pretty far from what I got eventually."

Hatate stood up and put the idol back into the bag. Wriggle whimpered and sobbed, trying in vain to get the antenna straight. Hatate stepped over her, heading for the door.

"Sure, cry all you like, but know this. If you tell anyone or go to Reimu with this she will destroy you forever, she knows how. And your wish will never come true, and the history of Yuuka will be forever hidden. See ya."

She walked out, and Wriggle ran to her leaf bed, falling on it, still crying and smearing around the yellow blood. Her thoughts tangled, flashing like fireflies, and she couldn't control them. Go to Reimu? But what about Yuuka? Why the monster chose her? Why? Why?

She sat up and wiped her tears. The antenna partially healed, far from perfect, but until morning it would not be noticeable. She will go to school tomorrow and confront Keine about all this. Yes, tomorrow everything will be better.

Wriggle washed her face from the blood and applied a bit of grub sauce to the wound. She put her clothes into laundry and blew off the candle, trying to get to sleep and forget all of this happened.

The night was completely silent, and deep inside the forest the monster that was Hatate pulled out a thin bloody shard from the backpack and put it into her mouth, chomping down and shattering it. The energy changed form and turned to liquid. It went down her throat and was absorbed, so much divine energy just to support her badly damaged and rapidly decaying body for a few more hours.

Tomorrow was going to be one hell of a day.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	8. Horror

**Shard 8: Horror**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The morning was unusually bleak and chilly for the early autumn, the clouds hanged low and rain was expected by evening. It was just like on the day Yuuka died, and it oppressed Wriggle so much she barely forced herself to get out of bed.

Her sleep was beset by shapeless and choking nightmares, and blood and feathers on the floor reminded vividly of yesterday's visit of the monster. As did the highlighted newspaper, blurry lines of which could not be read. The picture of Yuuka blurred too, the smaller features of her face fading away. Even the smile was no longer hers, just a generic arc of teeth.

Wriggle grimly started to prepare for school. There was no point in staying home, Keine will just send Mystia again, and they will have unnecessary fight and be late. There was no point in going to the Hakurei shrine either, Reimu will not listen and will not understand. Wriggle was pretty sure Reimu hated her for affiliation with Yuuka.

Or was it love? How did Marisa said, "you were attracted because you both had green hair"? Then why not Daiyousei, then? Why not Sanae? Why Yuuka, why, why…

Wriggle found out she was crying, and that didn't help things at all. If others see her like that they will pity her, and some will laugh outright, especially the more stupid ones like Rumia. And if they find out about the monster and her wish, then it will be indeed the end.

Wriggle wiped the tears thoroughly. Yes, she will not show any of it. She will dress in her best pants, and the cleanest shirt, and the most fluttering cape, and will laugh at the stupid jokes, and cause mischief, and challenge Cirno to a practice fight, and no one will notice anything today. Or tomorrow, they will never notice.

As Wriggle flew towards the school the rain started to fall, much earlier than expected. Not strong, just a few stray drops, but it was persistent, and by the time Wriggle reached the village, the humans already started packing up and unfolding tents on the market. There was no one in the school courtyard either.

Wriggle landed and made her way towards the usual classroom they occupied, the most spacious one. The door was closed, and from the commotion inside it sounded like the lesson has already started.

Wriggle slid the door open and bowed down immediately. "Sorry, Keine-sensei."

"Keine-sensei is, like, sick today, I'm covering for her. And come on in, don't be shy."

Wriggle's heart almost stopped at the sound of that voice. She slowly raised her head up, expecting to see a monster behind the teacher's desk. Expecting to see Keine's torn and bloodied body by the blackboard. Expecting to see all the other youkai present to be already dead, controlled like flesh puppets.

But the classroom was mostly normal, save for the odd fact that once again everybody was present. The three fairies played cards at the back, the nameless sunflower fairy was at the front, not a glint of intelligence in her eyes, Cirno was arm-wrestling with Daiyousei, Rumia was picking her nose…

And at the teacher's desk sat Hatate Himekaidou, just as Wriggle remembered her from before it all started. Just a normal, if a bit pale tengu, with obligatory purple tengu hat, high sandals and small neatly trimmed wings.

"Wriggle, we are waiting for you to sit down," she said plainly.

Wriggle's mind stopped working entirely. She walked to her seat with a grace of a broken marionette and awkwardly sat.

"What's with you?" Mystia quietly hissed to her ear from behind. "You missed half the lecture already! And it was very interesting by the way, about flying pyramids and Pazuzu!"

"Pazuzu?" Wriggle numbly repeated. Hatate meanwhile stood up and started erasing insanely complex pyramid designs from the blackboard. Her right arm hung limply, and it was even paler than her face.

"Hatate… she was missing since last week. She… she…"

"Well, duh, genius," Mystia scoffed. "Presumed to be the dark creature, but she isn't, you can see for yourself. She was exploring that temple in the mountains Yukari brought in. Then evil Sanae drove her out and forbid her to activate it completely. If it did, it would be so amazing. Also, Nitori is an evil monster, not her."

Wriggle numbly stared. No, there was absolutely nothing wrong with her friend, Mystia was acting and talking exactly as usual, excited about meeting a new interesting person Hatate was. After all, she never had a chance to hear another side of the story.

Wriggle slowly turned back to the blackboard. Hatate was finishing an icon of Pazuzu, drawn with wedged phrases instead of plain lines. She was scribbling at unbelievable speed, munching on something. Wriggle just sat there, paralyzed, and watched Cirno slowly winning the wrestle, despite Daiyousei using both arms now.

Hatate reached under the desk and pulled out a bronze statue of Pazuzu from yesterday. She put it in the desk with a crash, attracting attention of everyone.

"Okay kids, this is Pazuzu, the shaper of worlds. Behold!"

"Oooh," a unanimous sound of appreciation swept through the class, not because of the statue, but from the quality of finished icon on the blackboard. Wriggle remained silent, she could barely breathe.

"Now, Pazuzu is a very generous god, he grants wishes for free! But only to the worthy ones. Do you want to be the worthy ones?"

A just as unanimous shout of approval ensued. Hatate gave them a warm, reassuring smile.

"Then let's play a game! I'll send you all over the school with my wind magic, and you will go back here. Those who will reach this room get a wish. Oh, and you must kill at least one of your friends on the way, or else Pazuzu will eat your soul."

Hatate's smile grew wider. The skin kept stretching out, revealing more and more teeth, it became uncanny, then frightening, then horrifying.

Then there was a sound of the burst membrane, and Hatate's face melted. The skin dripped down, revealing muscles and sinews under it. The windows of the class turned pitch black in an instant, the only light now coming from the blazing runes on the blackboard.

The only one who didn't scream or recoil was a dumb sunflower fairy.

"Aw damn it, too soon," Hatate lamented, cupping her left hand and trying in vain to catch the disgusting dripping yellow liquid that was her skin. "I was so hoping you would treat it all as a joke for a while."

Everyone gaped in silence as she pulled out a thin red shard from under the table and munched on it. "Oh, and by the way, those who die in the school will stay dead, like, permanently," she said with a full mouth.

Cirno regained composure first and stepped forward. "Now this is just stupid," she confidently said. "We are fairies, we can't die. We'll just beat you down now, Not-Hatate."

"And eat you," Rumia added.

Hatate gulped down and grinned. She extended her functioning arm forward towards Cirno and opened her palm.

"Oh, how heartless of you," Hatate said.

In a flash of dark smoke, a crimson beating heart appeared in her outstretched hand. It contracted once, blood spurting out, and fluttered, deflating.

Silence and shock. Everyone looked at the heart, then at Cirno. Cirno slowly looked down at her chest, then around. She carefully coughed.

There was a quiet thud from the back of the class, and all the heads turned. Mystia was there, her back to the wall. She slowly slid down and then fell to the side, ending up in an uncomfortable position, her wing under her. A streak of blood went down from her nose.

"Aw shit, messed up the identifier symbols. Hold on, I got it," Hatate said quickly and dropped the heart, flexing her fingers.

"DIE!" Cirno yelled, and a nearly solid mass of energy bullets hurtled through the air towards the faceless monster. Hatate dropped the incantation and quickly muttered another one. Her shirt ripped on the back, and four black wings came into existence, sending a gust of oven-hot air against the bullets.

The spell battle started, danmaku against ancient magic, in an enclosed, inappropriate space, but Wriggle didn't care. She slowly walked back, to where Mystia was lying down.

"Mystia, you've got a nosebleed, you should not lie down like this," Wriggle said slowly, leaning in and propping the body up in the sitting position. Mystia's head hanged lifelessly and her eyes were closed.

"Let's wipe the blood away," Wriggle said mechanically, reaching into his pocket and taking out a handkerchief. "See, all better now. This lesson is boring, let's go to the forest and you'll sing for me. Come on, get up."

Elsewhere, the battle raged, the heaviest and most dangerous spell cards clashing against the shadow shields Hatate hastily put up. She was being slowly pushed toward the blackboard.

"You don't want to sing right now? It's okay, let's go and visit Keine instead. She is sick, right? Let's visit her, buy some flowers on the way. Come on, Mystia, let's go."

Wriggle tried to get Mystia up, but the body was limp and slid down every time. Wriggle gave up after a few tries.

"It's okay. You'll sleep a bit, and you'll be all better. All better…"

Hatate screamed, grabbing the corner of inscriptions on the blackboard and tearing the blazing wedged line off. She used it like a whip, catching the sunflower fairy in its path and slicing her diagonally in half. The small creature didn't explode like it was supposed to, instead it dropped down, twitching and sputtering around very red blood the lesser fairies should not have.

Hatate cracked the symbol whip and bullets in front of her shattered in mid-air. She started another incantation, longer and more complex one. The fairies fired again, but it was too late.

The symbols filled the air. The world churned and crashed into darkness.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"Ow, ow, ow…"

Never in her entire life Sunny Milk was in so much pain. As usual for fairies, she was routinely destroyed and reformed, but those moments were brief, and the pain was muted by the unique traits of fairy physiology.

But now her body hurt all over, and her right arm was trapped under an overturned bookshelf. To make the situation even more uncomfortable and disgusting the spell flung her into a biology classroom, and the bookshelves that crashed around and on top of her were full of preserved frogs and other small animals. Naturally, some of the jars shattered, spilling formalin all over Sunny's hair and dress. In the dim illumination provided by a wide string of symbols at the ceiling the dead frogs looked greenish and absolutely disgusting.

"Owie… Wriggle, stop staring and help me already! It feels like my hand is dissolving in there! Wriggle!"

Wriggle was sitting on the floor a bit in the distance, mumbling something incoherently and rocking back and forth. A quickly fading red inscription was glowing on her face. Sunny groaned, trying to pull her arm free once again.

"Wriggle! Oh, to hell with this…"

Sunny clenched her teeth and pointed her other arm at the shelf. Turning her head to shield her eyes, she fired a golden blast at point blank range. The resulting explosion created a storm of splinters, but at least she was now free.

Sunny crawled back, trying not to scream and to blink the tears away. She may have been a fairy, but she was probably right next to Daiyousei in terms of intelligence, and she knew that getting formalin in the eyes was not a good idea.

"Ow… why does it hurt so much… Wriggle, get up already and help me!"

"Sunny?"

The voice didn't come from Wriggle, but from somewhere around the classroom door. Sunny's eyes were still watery, so she couldn't see who it was, but she knew the voice well enough.

"Star, get in here this instant and find scissors or something! I'm burning all over!"

Star Sapphire shyly floated in. Being the most cautious member of the Mischevious Trio, Star usually was the one to escape unscathed when Sunny and Luna got caught and destroyed, and it looked like luck was again on her side this time. She was a bit shaken, but her blue dress was intact and her long brown hair was still in order, unlike Sunny's.

"Sunny, you are—"

"In great pain, so get something!"

Star's stupor ended, and she hurried towards the cabinet where scalpels and other assorted dissection instruments were stored. The biology classroom was well equipped courtesy of Eirin, in fact, probably three quarters of the school's facilities were.

The cabinet was locked, so Star blasted it open with danmaku and got some scissors out. She gave one to Sunny, and together they cut away the soaked sleeves and large parts of her skirt. The skin under was red and inflamed, and Sunny's arm was heavily cut by the shards of glass.

"I thought… I thought your blood was luminous and white…" Star said, pulling some clean towels from the classroom storage closet with trembling hands.

"I thought that skin on the face goes all the way down to the bone until today," Sunny responded dryly. "And that the heart looks like it does on playing cards."

"Actually… Eirin showed us yesterday…"

"Shut up, you know what I mean. And get a hold of yourself, we have to get out of here."

Sunny wrapped a towel around her injured arm, leaned to a large shard of glass on the floor and examined the state she was in with disgust. Her fiery red hair became discolored where the corrosive chemical spilled on it, and there were splinters sticking all over.

"Maybe… maybe we could just stay put and wait for help…"

"No," Sunny stated. "We have to run, and the faster, the better."

She turned and fired a golden orb at the blackened window. The projectile burst but the glass remained intact, protective symbols fading in. Sunny cringed.

"Um..."

"We will find a window that is not black. Follow me, we can't stay here," Sunny said and went for the door. Star helplessly looked at her, Wriggle and back.

"We have to take Wr—"

"She lost it," Sunny said at the door. "Lost her marbles, off the deep end, etcetera. She will slow us down. Let's go, Star."

"We can't just leave her in here! She is our friend!"

Sunny didn't answer, quickening her pace. "Follow me and live. Stay with her and die," she said over her shoulder and disappeared in the doorway.

Star hesitated for a moment, but Wriggle helped her make the decision by suddenly standing up and wailing "Yuuka!" towards the ceiling. Star rounded the screaming youkai at a large radius and ran after Sunny.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Luna Child belonged firmly to the other arm of scales in terms of intelligence. Despite being a greater fairy she never kept up with studies, allowed her impulses to control her and overall was not that far from the generic sunflower and waterfall fairies in survival potential.

For starters, the first thing she did when she regained consciousness was activating her ability and muting all sound around her. A great trick for causing mischief and stealing, and a completely idiotic action for someone who was trying to get help and find others.

The spell flung her to the school attic, a spacious and dusty enclosed space that was used to store assorted seasonal inventory and materials used in school repairs. It was pitch black, so Luna created a yellow autonomous orb to light her way. It was unreliable and cast shadows all around, but Luna lacked the capacity to be afraid. After all, her friends had to be nearby, and Sunny always knew what to do.

Luna slowly circled around the stacks of roofing felt and floated over an unusual circle on the floor, the circle made up of small clocks. She had absolutely no idea where the exit was, but then a dim light in the distance caught her attention. She flew towards it.

An enormous bulbous eye was embedded in the wall, and the light she saw earlier came from an intricate clock on the ground. The clock projected time on the pale sclera of the eye, the blue numbers reading 10:44.

The eye was so tall that Luna reflected in it like in a full-height mirror. She saw that the bow under her collar was tilted and she straightened it.

The eye moved, rotating in the wall socket and focusing on Luna. The iris dilated.

"Um… hello there…" Luna said, but her power was still active, so no sound escaped her throat.

The iris slowly kept dilating, and Luna saw that it was not black. There were flames burning inside, flames of dark purple and green. There were shapes moving there, rotating polygons and liquid spinning wheels. She saw a reflective black plain stretching out into darkness, a gigantic spiral tower on the horizon.

It dawned to Luna that probably this place was not entirely safe, so she shut down her power and heard that the air was filled with loud beeps from behind and loud screeches and moans in front of her, the uncanny sounds coming from within the eye. Despite that, she cleared her throat and politely bowed.

"Sorry, the most honorable Giant Wall Eye–san, but I have business elsewhere. Could you please kindly show me where the exit is?"

Politeness, as Keine always taught, was very important when dealing with strangers.

The next moment the iris burst and Luna, her light ball and a large portion of the attic's contents were nearly instantly sucked into the resulting reality tear, serving as a reminder that politeness should never substitute common sense.

Unfortunately for Luna Child, she never had the chance to take this new lesson to heart.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"We need a plan," Daiyousei said. She was standing next to the blackboard, a chalk in her hand. "Any suggestions?"

"We beat her up," Cirno declared and banged a fist into her palm.

"And eat her," Rumia added.

Daiyousei sighed and pinched a bridge of her nose. "Look, I respect you both deeply, but seriously, this is stupid. She defeated us when we all attacked her at once, and now there are only three of us, and we are apparently mortal."

She pointed at a deep bloody gash at the side of her ponytail. Cirno stood up from her desk and started pacing. Rumia spread her arms to the sides.

"Focus!" Daiyousei barked. "We need a plan, unconventional to throw her off and plausible enough to…"

Seeing that the others blinked at her, she sighed. "We need a plan that will be crazy enough to work, okay? I need suggestions."

"I create darkness so she can't see, then we eat her," Rumia said. Daiyousei scribbled "darkness" on the blackboard.

"Okay, but we can't see in the darkness either. Cirno?"

"We use ice to cover the scribbles on walls and make the ground slippery, so she falls."

"She can fly, but icing on walls is a good idea," Daiyousei agreed and put "ice" next to "darkness". "What else?"

All three fell silent, and Cirno shrugged expressively.

"Okay, there is also the wish deal," Daiyousei said, scribbling "wish". "But for that, she said we need to kill someone, hmm…"

"I know!" Rumia said cheerfully. "I'll kill you, then make a wish for Cirno to see in my darkness, Cirno freezes and kills Hatate, then makes a wish to resurrect you!"

"Oh, good idea," Daiyousei said and started writing "kill Daiyousei", but stopped at "y" and furiously scribbled out her name. "Bad idea. We are mortal, remember? And we will be saving that last wish to bring Mystia back. So let's—"

She was interrupted when the whole school shook. Daiyousei grabbed the edge of the blackboard to stay on her feet, but Cirno and Rumia were thrown to the floor along with the desks. There was a sound of roaring wind coming from somewhere above. It turned into a sound of emptying sink and stopped, only to be replaced by unholy screeches and screams.

Another violent shake, dust coming off from the ceiling, and everything became silent. The wall inscriptions that gave the room light flickered and went out.

"So…" Daiyousei uneasily said in the darkness. "Earthquake, huh? This changes things a bit. Light, please."

The light switched on, coming from Cirno's icicle wings. It was blue, accentuating her blue dress even more, and gave the room an unearthly look.

Daiyousei looked for the chalk she dropped, but something else got her attention. She quickly pointed at it, and the other two turned to see.

Something was oozing through the ceiling, a dark amorphous blob. Its surface was oily and multicolored, full spectrum of colors. It silently fell down, not making a sound when it hit the floor either. It took form, three bulbous tumors bubbling up on top, a multitude of hooked tentacles underneath. It was about the size of a football.

"Yuck, disgusting," Rumia spit and threw her arms to the sides. "If we kill it, does it count for a wish?"

"I… don't think we should approach it," Daiyousei thoughtfully said and inched away towards the door.

Suddenly the tumors on top of the creature burst, revealing three maws lined with transparent, crystal-like teeth. A multitude of red swollen eyes broke the surface like acne. Showing unexpected grace and speed, the thing jumped up on the overturned desk and skittered towards Rumia.

Rumia fired at it using her best spell card, _"Darkness Sign: Demarcation"_. Which was obviously not the best choice, because the spell used circular patterns and entrapped Cirno and Daiyousei too, so Rumia remained one on one against the creature.

The thing quickly scampered forward through the bullets. It somehow passed through the first widening wave unharmed, then through the second one, the third…

Then Rumia saw why and screamed. The thing didn't care about the bullets, it didn't even notice them. They collided with its body and disappeared without a trace. The creature flung herself over the overturned chair and jumped on Rumia's head.

Thankfully for Daiyousei and Cirno, Rumia managed to create the sphere of darkness around her a fraction of the moment before the impact. It didn't help her, but at least the others were spared the sight. And everything happened in absolute, eerie silence.

Cirno regained ability to move and think first, running towards the door and grabbing Daiyousei by the arm on the way. She dragged her out of the classroom and sprinted down the corridor.

A twisted screeching gap opened up in the floor, spitting out a fountain of glowing green intestines. Cirno took a sharp turn and they made a detour through the adjacent classroom, a perfectly normal room if not for the fact that all the chairs and desks were covered in writhing skin and were floating close to the ceiling.

They burst out of the classroom and went for the staircase down. Cirno rounded the corner and nearly bumped into absolutely miserably looking Sunny Milk.

"What are you doing?" Sunny shouted, pushing Cirno away. "We have to run, there are… there are… tentacle wolves out there! They nearly got Star!"

"It's no better… from where we came," Cirno pushed out through ragged breaths. "They got Rumia."

From around the corner, Star Sapphire ran in and nearly collapsed. Her wings were almost completely destroyed. "Sunny, why did we stop?"

"There is nowhere else to run…" Sunny said and her legs gave out. She sat, staring at the wall. "We are all going to die…"

Star stood dumbstruck for a moment, then her shock turned to anger. "You promised me you will get us out! It's your punishment for leaving Wriggle behind!"

"Shut up," Sunny slowly said, standing up. "Or I will kill you for my wish."

"No, I won't shut up! Wriggle's blood is on your hands!"

Sunny slowly started turning, and Daiyousei realized that something horrible was about to happen. She pulled her arm free and stepped forward.

"Calm down, both of you. We are still alive, and we can still do it. Let's go down the stairs and kill Hatate instead."

"The staircase is filled with inscribed worms," Cirno said plainly.

Daiyousei stumbled but didn't give up that easily. "There is another one, from where Sunny came."

"Tentacle wolves," Star helpfully supplied.

"Well…" Daiyousei said, panic slowly creeping in. "We can still use Star's ability to avoid the monsters…"

"We are in narrow corridors, it's not going to help," Sunny said, her voice full of irritation. "Especially against something like the silent tide of eyes that is slowly rising behind you right now."

She finished the sentence already on the run, Star right behind her. Daiyousei's legs refused to move, but Cirno grabbed her again and ran after Star.

It was hopeless. The corridor ended in a dead end, and the last classrooms were filled with what looked like a corrosive acid fog judging by the state of the furniture inside. The bubbling tide slowly approached, unseeing eyes rotating inside the black incorporeal mass.

"This… is not a good way to go…" Sunny whispered, backing to a wall and pressing her back against it so tightly as if she wanted to push through the stone. "I never deserved it… I did nothing to deserve it… none of us did…"

"You deserved it!" Star shouted. "You let Wriggle behind! If you took her with us we wouldn't be all punished! You-"

A gap opened behind Sunny. A normal, smooth and silent gap, like Yukari usually makes, and light flooded the quickly shortening corridor, the light from outside, the light of a cloudy rainy day.

Sunny fell into the gap, so shocked she forgot to take flight. She fell down, hitting pavement head first and exploding, in a normal way the fairies explode when destroyed. Daiyousei stared into the gap, she saw the courtyard, the small crowd of villagers pushed behind the school fence, Keine, Yukari and Reimu standing in front…

"Wait for me!" Star shouted, running towards the gap.

The gap blinked, turning jagged and screeching in an instant and the landscape behind turned into a dark void of flames and geometrical shapes. Star couldn't stop in time, the momentum carried her forward into it. There was no gravity there, and she rotated, slowly floating away, an expression of disappointment and hurt on her face, like a child that just broke her favorite toy.

One of the shapes inside collided with her and minced her whole body into thin red paste.

The gap blinked again, becoming smooth and normal, showing the courtyard again. Reimu turned to Yukari and shouted at her at the top of her lungs, shouted something Daiyousei couldn't discern.

Something shoved her in the back and she flew towards the gap. There was a long horrible moment when she heard a screech, but it was behind her. She fell, but managed to land mostly safely. Keine ran to her, kneeling and hugging her tightly.

Daiyousei just stood, staring at the jagged gap at the second floor. Cirno was still there, it was Cirno who saved her, who lit their way all this time, who suggested they should fight Hatate right away…

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Reimu shouted at Yukari. "You can't keep one measly gap open? Are you trying to kill them on purpose?"

Yukari didn't answer, sweating heavily and concentrating on the gap. It smoothed out again, and Daiyousei saw that Cirno was still there, firing ice and hail at the approaching wall of eyes, the wall only a few feet from her now.

"Cirno! Get out!" Keine and Daiyousei shouted at the same time. She heard them and ran towards the gap.

And the gap blinked again, right before she entered it. There was a flash of blue, and then everything inside the gap turned dark.

Complete silence, only the gap screeched. "Close it," Reimu said.

Yukari dropped her arms, and the gap turned into a broken line and disappeared. Daiyousei stood, blinking, and Keine cried on her shoulder.

Some time passed, Daiyousei couldn't tell how much. Yukari stood in place, looking down, and Reimu fired danmaku at the school entrance, at the windows, at the walls, the energy absorbed by dark inscribed barriers that rose up automatically at the approach of the bullets.

Then, the main doors of the school slowly opened and Wriggle walked outside, dragging the heavy idol of Pazuzu on the ground behind her. She stumbled towards Reimu, eyes blank. Odd, but it was Yukari, not Reimu, who showed fear at her approach.

"She is waiting for you inside," Wriggle said to no one in particular and fell over. Keine released Daiyousei and ran towards her.

"Be careful, it's a trap," Yukari said. Reimu turned to her, finishing a turn with a slap.

"Useless gap hag," she hissed and quickly walked towards the school entrance. Yukari released a whimper, nurturing her face.

Daiyousei felt completely empty. All were probably dead, except for her, Wriggle and Sunny… and yet she felt nothing, like her soul was wrung out of her. She turned around, unsure of what to do.

And only then she noticed that Keine, in fact, didn't have the right arm, a bloody bandaged fresh stump where it used to be.

Daiyousei decided that seeing this was quite a valid reason for blacking out, so she proceeded right away to doing so.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The corridor was scribbled in glowing symbols all over. They flashed and went dark, forming waves of luminescence that beckoned Reimu to move deeper into the school. She floated, careful not to touch the symbols, her gohei stick on the ready to blast anything.

But nothing happened, and Reimu slowly and carefully moved towards where the symbols invited her, into the largest classroom on the ground floor.

The door was open, and Reimu made her way inside. Likewise, the whole room was covered in glowing inscriptions. The desks and chairs were broken, the clutter lining the walls, but a few of the chairs were put back, corpses sitting in them. Mystia, her head on the desk like she fell asleep during the class. Rumia, missing the head and the large part of the upper torso. A small sunflower fairy, cut in half and put together.

And at the teacher's desk, Hatate was sitting, her face pale and tense, four thin bloody shards on the table in front of her.

"Come on in, sit down," she offered and pointed to an empty student desk. "I'd like to talk."

Reimu fired without announcing the spell card. Spell amulets and seals crashed against the invisible barrier in front of Hatate, creating a shock wave that threw the corpses down. Hatate winced, picked up the shard and munched on it.

"Can you imagine how these things hurt my gums?" she said after gulping it down. "I'm in, like, bloody unbelievable pain, Reimu."

"It's Hakurei-san for you, and you are not Hatate. Show me your true form and fight, Pazuzu," Reimu said coldly. Hatate released a short laugh.

"You don't understand, do you?" she said, twirling the shard between her fingers. "I am still me, Hatate Himekaidou, with some cool new powers and a bit loosened up morals. You should really feel pity for me, I am about to die, you know."

"You killed people," Reimu said and fired again, with the same result, the shield holding up. Hatate put the shard in her mouth.

"Not that many," she said through the chomps. "Only seven: Aya, Momiji, Mystia, that fairy, whatever, who cares about her, and three villagers. And tore away Keine's arm, that's it. I could kill all the fairies easily by the way, but I wanted to give them a sporting chance even if the deck is stacked."

"You are a monster," Reimu said and fired once again. This time the invisible shield bent in, and the inscriptions around shifted from white to red.

Hatae's face twisted, the skin slowly sliding down, and from her left arm too. She bit another shard, and only one was left on the table now.

"Fight me," Reimu ordered. Hatate chuckled.

"If I go on offensive I will have to lower the barriers. You will then effortlessly crush me, and I still haven't told you everything I wanted. Wouldn't you like to know? About these shards, about how I made fairies mortal, about Pazuzu? About me, my favorite color, my favorite song…"

Reimu fired again, and the shield collapsed, but the spell effect still faded before reaching the skinless monster that was Hatate. She shattered the last shard between her teeth.

"These shards contain solidified Suwako's power, Nitori told me that," Reimu said dispassionately. "You made fairies mortal with black magic, and it is probably reversible. You are an avatar of Pazuzu, an empty vessel for his will and power. Attack me."

And now Hatate laughed, weakly. One of her eyes sunk deep and turned into dust inside the socket, and her hair started to fall out.

"You are wrong… and blind," she said, her words coming out with gurgles. "Pazuzu never makes avatars… the power is just spells… that winged form was just spell armor, and it took way too much energy... killed me. Pazuzu is not an idol, an object… an inscription to be destroyed. He is an invincible… god."

Reimu fired again. Hatate put her left arm up, and the spell blast shattered it, leaving a bloody stump with protruding pieces of bones. Reimu, who up until that point showed little emotion lowered her arm, looking at the coughing and gurgling monster with surprise.

"Why don't you fight?"

"Because you… want me… to…" Hatate choked out and fell to the side, crawling into view. "Because I… I won against Tewi… at cups and balls… what you are doing… is not…"

Her head fell, and she twitched, trying to hold it up and crawl. Reimu carefully floated towards her and saw Hatate was still somehow able to speak, despite her neck being almost completely devoid of flesh. She whispered, and despite her better judgment, Reimu leaned in.

"… is not… how you win… you still… want to guess… and you have to… know..."

"And in the end, you went insane. I think it is fitting," Reimu said, stood up and pointed her stick at Hatate's head. "Such is the end of all evil, madness and disgrace."

"... evil... never ends... you can't win... because Pazuzu... he is a cheater... and even if you win… the cheater… still… "

Her head fell with a thump, black liquid flowing down from her mouth and empty eye sockets. Her body quickly started to dissolve into dust and viscous black liquid, leaving inscribed, thin bones and a pale and lifeless right arm behind. The inscriptions on the bones glowed, and Reimu quickly flew back, but the wedged words blinked and faded, leaving the blackened bones cracked but solid.

Then, the inscriptions on the walls moved. They flexed like snakes and started slithering out through the smallest cracks. The windows lost their black tint, pale daylight flooding the room.

Reimu saw that red inscriptions slithered towards the village and cursed. She really hoped that the incident will be solved today, but no such luck now. She hurried outside.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

There were no shouts of victory, no claps or cheers when Reimu emerged from the school. Everyone saw the inscriptions escaped, and nobody knew what it meant. The people waited for her to say something.

By the time she returned more villagers and youkai arrived. Eirin was here, examining Daiyousei and Wriggle on the stretchers, and representatives of the Netherworld and Scarlet Devil Mansion, Youmu and Sakuya respectively, were also present.

Reimu flinched under all the anticipating and hopeful looks. How she wished to come out of the school with unconscious villain under her arm, followed by all the miraculously alive fairies… How she wanted to tell them that the nightmare is over and there will be no more funerals…

But no. This was not the time to celebrate yet. The incident will be solved, one way or another, but not today.

"We will be safe for a while," she announced, and the crowd behind the gates cheered and shouted "Reimu! Reimu!" again and again. The youkai didn't because they were closer and could see her face.

"Okay, nothing to see here!" Reimu shouted. "I will announce if the formal celebrations will be held a bit later. For now, return to your homes."

The crowd slowly started to disperse, and Reimu sighed, making her way towards the stretchers. "What's with them?" she asked, addressing Eirin.

"It's more important what is with you," she responded.

Reimu dismissively waved. "I barely lifted a finger, she… it died on its own. What's with them?"

"Physically, they are perfectly healthy. Mentally..." Eirin trailed off and thoughtfully put her hand to her chin. "I think counseling will be required."

"Wriggle is dangerous and you must seal her," Yukari suddenly piped up from behind. Reimu turned and gave her a glare so full of hate she recoiled back.

"Where is the idol?" Reimu asked, still glaring.

"Here," Eirin said and pointed behind the stretchers. Reimu walked to the ugly bronze statue and threw it to Yukari's feet.

"Gap it."

"Wh... where?"

"Preferably to where it will make friends with murderous geometry. Gap it."

Yukari stared at the idol, her lips trembling slightly. She opened a small smooth gap under it, and heat blazed from it. The idol fell in and disappeared in the flames.

"Now, the temple," Reimu ordered and pointed to the mountains.

"I… I…"

"Now!"

"I can't!" Yukari shouted, clearly in panic. "It… it blocks my powers! It… makes these jagged gaps, yes, that's what it does! If I make a gap this wide…"

Everyone present gave Yukari a look of disbelief. Never before they have seen her acting like this, clearly afraid. There was also something strange about her posture and how she spoke. Something… off.

"Fine," Reimu said after a long pause. "I'll ask Alice and Nitori to gather enough explosives. Now, the inscriptions. Sakuya, I want Patchouli to start working on it, full time."

Sakuya bowed slightly. "What about destroying the black magic of this place?"

"That too, but secondary at best. De… incapacitated Rumia can wait a bit," Reimu said, stumbling when she saw how Wriggle's eyes looked like.

"Is there a need of my services?" Youmu offered.

"Not yet. See that everything is well at Netherworld, I'll call on you if needed. Now, everyone!"

Everyone was already at attention, but Reimu clapped her hands nevertheless. "I know we are all stressed out about all this "Pazuzu" business, but we can't fall into despair, we have to hope, pray and keep our spirits up. So next week… next week, right?" she clarified, and Eirin nodded. "Next week, Marisa is going to be discharged from the hospital, we are having a party, and you all are invited!"

Her face darkened. "Except you, Yukari. Not after what happened today. How could you?"

"It's… it's not my fault! I just wanted-"

"Shut up, it is. This is your Gensokyo, you have eyes and agents everywhere, and you missed all opportunities to end it all without bloodshed. Not to mention all the screeching gap bullshit. Find a way to pull Cirno and Star out, I don't care how."

Yukari hung her head. "I'll… I'll just go now, okay?"

"You do that."

Under Reimu's glare she backed away, opened a gap and stumbled into it. It closed behind her, releasing a twisted screech at the last moment. Reimu sighed.

"I'll check the building for survivors and then we'll carry out the victims. Make Patchouli study the spell remnants as fast as possible, then this place needs to be burned, preferably by Mokou, and the soil must be salted, paved, and declared off-limits for at least fifty years. I am not taking any chances."

Reimu leaned in to Wriggle. "And I promise, I will find a way to bring Mystia back."

Wriggle smiled, a thin, warm smile.

And Reimu couldn't help but notice how much this smile reminded her of Yuuka.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	9. Humor

**Shard 9: Humor**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Hell. A dismal joyless place crawling with the spirits of the damned and ruled by the most depraved, insane and ruthless youkai.

September nineteenth. Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Two of the above, combined.

"Arrr, matey!" bellowed Utsuho Reiuji, the Hell Raven from the Hell of the Blazing Fires as she liked to call herself formally on masquerades and high-class tea parties she never attended. The name is way too long by the way, so we are going to call her "the poor girl who had less than a week to live but didn't know it," from now on.

Okuu. We are going to call her Okuu.

"Yarrr!" Rin Kaenbyou yarrred. Her name is also long and silly sounding by the way, so we are going to call her "the blazing feline, hauler of damned souls, lord and master of the edge of the Hell of Blazing Fires, the mobile traffic accident, etc." from now on.

"How me matey be doin' today?" Okuu inquired.

"Adrift," the blazing feline, hauler of damned souls, lord and master of the edge of the Hell of Blazing Fires, the mobile traffic accident, etc. said with a shrug.

"Harrr! Lift the sails, matey! Let's see how our cap'n be doin' on this fine, fine day for sailin'!"

"Sorry, matey, gotta haul these scurvy rotten scum overboard," the blazing feline, hauler of damned souls, lord and master of the edge of the Hell of Blazing Fires, the mobile traffic accident, etc. said apologetically and pointed at her full, cloth-covered wheelbarrow.

Okay, okay, we are going to call her Orin, sheesh.

Orin worked the wheelbarrow, if you know what we mean. Well you probably don't, so let's describe her life and appearance in excruciating detail. It's not like we have anything else to do here.

So, first of all, Orin holds a blazing blue spirit in her left hand. The spirit looks like a small glob of awesome, and she never lets it go. Sometimes she quickly rotates her wrist, using the momentum of the inner layers of the spirit to massage her wrist and alleviate the pain from the terrible injury she received many years ago at war where she lost her family, friends, her first love and five little cute kitten children. If you just imagined Orin in a flooded trench, screaming, crying and giving birth to the litter of kittens, the merciless freezing rain whipping her naked body, congratulations, we feel so very happy for you. It is a mental image we hold dearly in our heart, recollecting it every time we feel sad or lonely.

In her other hand, Orin holds _the wheelbarrow_, a hellish soul-entrapping eldritch device she uses to carry the corporeal vestiges of the damned spirits of the damned. Her miserable, agonizingly difficult life consists of gathering these spirits around the hellish landscape, where they helplessly flop about after falling from the reddish sky, crying their last fading cries of despair before expiring. She picks them up and hauls them towards the Hell of Blazing Fires, where they burn, burn, BURN! AHAHAHAHA!

Orin's black and green dress is tailored perfectly, accentuating her supple, well-toned body. Black ribbons hold her twin braids, her hair so perfect and red, her cat ears always alert and her human ones so sensual. Oh, how we would like to hold her in our arms, if only we could be alone with her. But these three skull-faced blue spirits that float around her are always watching and judging us, always.

Also, we sadly don't have arms. Oh cruel fate, why don't we have any arms? Why?

"Orin," Okuu said in a normal, not-pirate voice. "You _are_ aware the blue spirit in your hand is making up creepy stuff and narrating it out loud, right?"

"Eh, let him have his fun," Orin said with yet another shrug. "It's barely audible anyway. I'll finish up quickly and join you at the palace."

Okuu nodded and, after releasing a guttural "Yarrr", took off in the air.

Okuu looks nothing special by the way.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Satori Komeiji, the proud owner of the second stupidest name in Gensokyo, lived in the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

The first place in the "Epically stupefying names of Gensokyo" contest, held annually by a jolly human writer named Frank, was firmly held by Sunny Milk among the fairies and Patchouli Knowledge among the greater youkai for having their names made from commonly used nouns.

The second place was held by Satori. Why? Because her species were satori, a type of youkai that is best described by this eyewitness account: "Oh, a girl with lavender hair, how cute. Ooh, a large judging eye on fleshy tubes that is connected to her hair, how unusual. How… oh god, she is in my head. She is inside my brain! SHE IS INSIDE MY BRAIN! MY BRAin is melti…"

So, being a satori and named Satori, she was a constant butt of jokes of the hell denizens, the normal short exchanges going like this:

"Hey, have you seen a satori?"

"Who, Satori or Koishi?"

Hilarious. It should also be noted that Frank was stark, raving mad and dated dead seagulls. He also lobbied a bill in the village council that a marriage to a dead seagull should be considered legal and wrote an eight hundred pages long autobiographical novel about his legislative war. He then died and joined the collective consciousness of spirits Orin holds in her hand, quickly climbing up the spirit ladder and gaining dominance. Where were we? Oh, right.

The third place was held by Keine Kamishirasawa. Her last name wrapped reality around it, forcing those who dared to put it to paper to look it up every time from stable, reliable sources, because remembering it was utterly impossible. The only other name in the universe with a similar effect belonged to the most famous volcano of the Outer World, Eyjafjallajökull.

Back to Satori. Satori was not liked, in Hell or anywhere else. Not because she could read thoughts of course, but because she would not shut up about it, bringing it up in every conversation. Unlike her sister Koishi, who could read the subconscious but was always polite and smiling, and most just assumed she lost her powers when she sealed her third eye.

Oh, how wrong they were. How wrong they all were, and when Koishi returned to her dark, horrendous lair (which looked to any observer as a room belonging to a normal girl of her age), when she pulled out the strings of emotions she gathered, and when she devoured them, playing with them, rolling them around her mouth, saliva dripping from her slimy tongue, as she caressed them, the slimy strings dripping as she licked her-

"Stop bad-mouthing Koishi, it is not nice and disgusting," Orin said with a cringe and squeezed us in her hand. Ow, this hurts!

Okay, okay, so we exaggerated a bit. Koishi was a nice, pure girl, and so was Satori, her incorruptible pure pureness of purity radiating and giving us all warm, gentle feelings of inner peace and tranquility. We found her in the palace's reading room, a book in her hands, "Extensive encyclopedia, dictionary and thesaurus of nautical terms" on the cover.

"Yo-ho, captain," Orin greeted. "A mighty fine day to be sailing the bright seas of sinful upside. Marisa, the salty sea-dog, be leaving the sick bay today, and there be party, lots of rum and lusty wenches. And Koishi be willing to sail too!"

Satori slowly looked up, shocked. The book fell down and closed up.

"Orin… you… you are scaring me," she choked out. "How… how could you learn it all so quickly? And Okuu too… I can't… I can't do it…"

"Arrr!" Orin reassuringly arrred. "Be talking like a pirate be in our salty blood! Be talking like a pirate be like drawing breath, like walking the deck at calm seas. Let the anchoring chains of your mind burst and be free! Be free, and talk like a pirate!"

Satori blinked, first with normal eyes, then the third one. She whimpered.

"Orin, I can't…"

"Yarrr, ya can!" Okuu called, joining them, flying in with something large, heavy and wrapped in sandpaper in her hands. "Cap'n, ya be able to! Say arrr, and we be goin'!"

"Look, friends, can we just skip it this year…"

"Jim-lads," Orin mercilessly said. "We be your jim-lads, you be our captain. Marisa be salty sea-dog, Reimu be too. Others be squires. Fairies be scurvy dogs. Verbs be be."

"Yarrr," Okuu added.

And they dragged Satori towards the exit, putting a captain hat on her. Nobody knew where this hat came from, except us. Oh yes, we knew. When Orin was in the war, it was the talisman of their engineering detail, and she managed to pull it from under the rubble that crushed all of her comrades. She tearfully held to the memory of the hat, using it out only in the greatest moments of vulnerability and weakness. The hat was her confessional booth, the spirits of her comrades lived in it, and sometimes at night, when she thought nobody was watching she—

OW! Stop squeezing us!

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The house was a dark, foreboding place, steep roof creases adorned with laughing obsidian gargoyles, dark smoke rising from the lawn pit where hundreds of sinners screamed, their flesh being boiled alive in the unholy witch-fires. Before it three ghostly musicians danced, their cacophonous music piercing the eardrums of unaware…

We just described a flier to a performance by Prismriver sisters that was held in Hell a month ago. Why does Orin keep a month-old flier in her pocket? Will it be an important detail later? Will the world hang in balance, and will it be doomed or saved because of it?

No, it won't. The world is doomed, and will be destroyed because of a fairy.

Anyway, we reached Marisa's house long past dusk, and it looked nothing like the poster that was just described. It was dark, the windows were invitingly lit, and loud laughs were heard from the inside.

There was a garden gnome on the lawn dressed in red and blue, his porcelain face sprouting a thick, detailed mustache. His boots were bulbous, and a web of cracks was on the right one. He was holding a porcelain pickaxe in his right arm and a roughly painted lantern in the left. He wore a thick miner jacket and pants, held by a buckle covered in flaking golden paint.

Next to the gnome was an ornamental garden snail, a small patch of mushrooms growing out of her shell, hollowed out specifically for that purpose. She looked weather-beaten, and one of the upward-facing eyestalks was broken and glued together with glue that turned yellow over time.

And next to the snail was yet another garden ornament, a stylized frog with an open mouth. It looked newer than the previous two, her glistening wart-covered back painted bright green. The eyes were very detailed too, the strange vertical slits colored midnight purple.

In the triangle formed by the garden ornaments lay drunken Suika Ibuki, but we all know how she looks like so let's skip the description.

Orin walked to the porch and knocked. Apparently, her knock could not be heard over the music and drunken shouts so she knocked again, louder.

"Are you sure it is a good idea?" Satori uneasily asked. "I mean, we are… be not exactly invited?"

"Aye," Okuu agreed. "And yet, we be happy for her, and we be bringin' booty as a gift."

She waved the mysterious wrapped object around. Orin knocked again.

"Who's that late, ze~?" Marisa exclaimed, swinging the door open. She didn't look drunk, but she didn't look like she was all right either, her eyes glazed over and her pupils looking like dots.

"Arrr! We be pirate crew of Hell! Orin, Satori and me, Utsuho Reiuji, the Hell Raven from the Hell of the Blazing Fires! Happy birthday!" Okuu shouted and pushed the wrapped thing into Marisa's hands, smiling. "Me wish you be healthy, happy, and burn from inside like I do! Arrr!"

A deafening chirp of a single cricket.

"It's not her birthday, birdbrain," Orin hissed very, very quietly.

Marisa looked down at the object in her hands and blinked. "Wut?"

"I read… be reading in your mind you are confused," Satori said, pushing forward. "And your innermost desire now is to reach the latrine, to relieve your bowe—"

Orin elbowed Satori in the side.

"It's Talk Like a Pirate Day, and we decided to visit," Orin continued for her. "Sorry we are late, the seas be filled with treacherous reefs and shoals."

"We lost Koishi on the way," Satori said apologetically. "A jagged screeching gap opened in mid-air and she flew into it. We called for her, and searched a bit but she didn't… not bin able to return, so we gave up and flew… rowed here. Hope she's okay, that gap looked nasty…"

"But worry not!" Okuu interjected. "Me be great pilot, arrr! Avoided other heinous gaps we did, and slitherin' flyin' inscription snakes bin no match for our nautical speed!"

"Okay…" Marisa said slowly, taking all of it in. It looked like she mentally struggled with something for a moment. "About Koishi… no, not today, I'll tell you later."

She wiped her face and sighed. "Well since you got this far come on inside. Sorry, I can't be at my best today, still not recovered fully so can't share rum with you…" She suddenly smiled. "But Eirin never said anything about psychedelic mushrooms, so we'll share a bite. Or snort, I have powder too. Drop the present somewhere, ze~"

She turned and walked in, swaying. She clapped, getting the attention of guests.

"Arrr, mateys! Today is… be Talk Like a Pirate Day, we totally forgot! And we got special visitors, the ones that nearly made Reimu walk the plank last year!"

"ARRR!" came the arrr from the whole congregation of the drunk. Reimu herself didn't arrr, on account of her being out cold with her head on the table, Sunny Milk doodling on her face.

"Now, if you excuse me, old salty sea dog Marisa gonna visit the special throne room."

She left, Okuu and Orin rushed towards the impromptu bar, and Satori was left alone at the center of the room. She slowly saw most of the eyes focusing on her. She knew she was going to be judged for her species, and she saw a metaphorical dark chasm between her and everyone else. No, she will never be accepted for what she is, everyone will mock her, spit at her, consider her a monster unworthy of pity. She will spend all her life alone, unaccepted, alone, alone, alone…

"Everyone, look, it's Satori!" Tewi shouted, pointing. "Everyone, on three, imagine her naked! One, two…"

Satori realized what was going to happen a fraction of second too late.

"…three!"

Everyone imagined Satori naked. Everyone. Reisen's version was on the hospital bed, hooked to beeping machines, Tewi's – trapped, struggling in the net. Alice imagined her as a very lifelike marionette, strings going up to an unseen puppet master, Sunny – on the beach of the lake, splashing water around. Nitori's version was floating in a capsule, powering an enormous winged 'mech.

Daiyousei created a mental image of her slowly floating into a void to be devoured by alien geometries.

"Noooooooo!" Satori screamed to the heavens. The settings were different, but the image of her nakedness multiplied in her mind and became extremely, mind-shatteringly vivid.

Continuing her wail of denial, she rushed to the nearest sake bottle and started chugging from it. Nitori helpfully offered her a cucumber.

"Ye all be scurvy scum," Satori cried, munching the cucumber down. "No respect from ye…"

Yes, the sudden psychological trauma destroyed the chains in her mind anchoring her and she sailed, sailed towards the light of madness, embracing her inner pirate along the way. She sailed and the others cheered, clapping her on the back when she started coughing, all of them way too drunk by that point to care about their thoughts were being read.

And the moral of the story is: drink. Beer, ale, gin, rum, whiskey, vodka, absinth, medical spirits, cologne, turpentine… anything goes with cucumbers. Cucumbers are awesome, and have more than one use, if you know what we mean.

Well, you probably don't, so let us explain. You see, the anatomy of a female is such that to—

OW! What did we do this time?

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"Arrr…" Okuu arrred.

"Yarrr…" Orin agreed.

"Okay guys… girls, it's past midnight, so enough of that," Marisa said, coming closer. Orin, Okuu and Satori were sitting in a tight circle, passing the bottle around.

"Aww, buzzkill," Okuu said half heartedly and hicced. "The fun just started!"

"Sorry," Marisa said, sitting down to them. "It is just not that kind of party. I am tired, and everyone else is asleep anyway."

"I'm still… alive!" Nitori suddenly piped up from the other side of the room and started crawling to them. "Nothing is going to stop… me!"

"Wow, she can drink, wow," Okuu said and hiccupped again.

"I've… experimented, yeah," Nitori slurred, crawling closer. "With weird stuff…"

"I know your fears, Marisa," Satori said with all of her eyes half-closed. "You fear that we will explode everything, but I promise we will be quiet."

"Okay, great," Marisa said. She was nearly sober by that point, the effects of the mushrooms worn off. "I'll bring you some blankets then, you can sleep on the carpet."

"Wait," Okuu said, and grabbed her by the sleeve. "Open the present first."

"Ugh, it's heavy, ze~," Marisa protested, but decided that keeping the hell raven happy was more important. She dragged the misshapen thing to them and started unwrapping the sandpaper. There was a glint of metal from the inside, and then she tore the cover off.

A statue of slender winged humanoid, his four wings bent and partially melted just as his face, his right arm held up as if in greeting, a wedged inscription at the base of the pedestal.

"Hehe…" Marisa awkwardly laughed. "It returned."

"I can see inside your mind a tornado of emotions that swirls, unable to break through your throat," Satori said. "But I know you are unhappy with the present, and thus you wound Okuu verily."

"Aww," Okuu said. "I thought you'd like it, I mean, I barely caught it when it fell through the gap…"

"I think Yukari should stop using the Hell of Blazing Fires as a garbage disposal," Marisa said with a sigh. "It's not that I don't like it, I just have a history with a thing. After all, it's because of it I spent nearly a month in hospital. It looks mundane, but it is cursed and grants wishes."

Orin picked the idol up. "Really?"

"Yeah, really, ze~. I wished on the idol for my house to be cleaned and repaired, and Reimu and others cleaned and repaired it in preparations for the party. Totally worth being stabbed and losing some intestines," she finished with a bitter smile.

"So…" Okuu thoughtfully said. "It grants a wish, but at a horrible, unbalanced price…"

"Well, yeah. I'll go get your blankets," Marisa said, standing up. She went cross-eyed and held to Orin's ear for support. "Woah, so lightheaded…"

Marisa blinked the daze away and took a few deep breaths. Have we mentioned she was sober by that point? Well, she wasn't. She was sober enough to talk and move mostly normally, but the part of her brain that was responsible for distinguishing between a normal action and incredibly stupid one was still taking a little nap. And by "a little nap" we mean a condition similar to in which Reimu was. So what Marisa said next sounded perfectly logical and fine in her head.

"Where was I? Ah yes, the idol. You say "Pazuzu" three times to make a wish. Also, we are kinda fighting Pazuzu right now, so please get the idol to Patchouli tomorrow, she'll study it."

We'd facepalm, but we don't have a face or palms.

Marisa trotted away, and Okuu trustingly nudged Orin, winking at the idol.

"What? Oh, come on, it's ridi… rudi… dumb," Orin said with difficulty.

"We'll select the horrible inappropriate punishment ourselves," Okuu boldly pronounced without stumbling. "We are evil spawn of hell, we got nothing to fear!"

"Yeah! Especially me!" Nitori cheerfully agreed.

"Okay, so everyone, Pazuzu three times," Okuu slurred with a certainty of a suicide jumper.

"PAZUZU, PAZUZU, PAZUZU!"

"I wish for a new wheelbarrow," Orin said. "I sacrifice Okuu for that."

What? She would not say that, you say? Well, how about you drank about three full bottles of sake first without any normal food whatsoever (no, two cucumbers don't count), then inhaled some weird homemade mushroom powder, we'd like to see what you'd say in such situation, Mr. or Mrs. Smartypants!

"I wish to see Gensokyo burn!" Okuu quietly shouted, going from mundane wish level to ridiculously impossible in one decisive leap and setting the new bar to top. "I sacrifice Orin!"

"Pfft, that's nothing," Satori grumbled. "I wish to be accepted both by human and youkai societies, and I sacrifice you both!"

"You are all sheep," Nitori uttered and grabbed the statue by the upper wings, leveling her gaze with the melted face. "Pazuzu, I wish to be an almighty GOD! I sacrifice the whole Gensokyo!"

A moment of hollow, awkward silence.

And then they all laughed, rolling on the floor. Great times were had by everyone. They laughed, and they poked unconscious Reimu in places, they checked if Sunny's wings are detachable (they are not), they traded stories and finally fell asleep, Satori hugging the idol like a plush toy.

Oh yes, great times.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

A week later Orin found herself standing at the edge of the fire pit, emptily staring at the wheelbarrow handle in her hand. It broke off when she dumped the latest haul over the edge, and the main body of the carriage, which served her faithfully for the last four hundred years or so, fell down and burned up in the flames.

"Oh no," she said, perfectly summarizing in these two words a volume of feelings, understanding now that her own death and the end of whole Gensokyo were now utterly inevitable. We would like to point out that it was all totally Orin's fault. If her ear was not there for Marisa to grab, Marisa would faint, never telling how to activate the idol, and everyone would live. And Okuu would not die a few days ago, nope.

Also, Orin's own death will be extremely stupid, because she will die alone and will achieve nothing with her death besides furthering the plan of Pazuzu further.

"Shut up," Orin growled and threw us down, towards the devouring flames of oblivion.

No, we are not sad. We knew it would happen, we get glimpses of the future sometimes. We knew we would die today, it's okay. We are happy we will not live to experience the future where almost everyone dies horribly, Gensokyo burns and Reimu dies laughing, crushed by an enormous Cyclops.

Oh hey, fire.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	10. Hurt

**Shard 10: Hurt/Comfort**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

It was dream, she knew it. She could almost feel the bristly carpet under her, the rays of moonlight…

But Satori was still in darkness, on a cold pane of obsidian glass, in the howling wind. There was nothing to hold on to, no direction to go, and the mirrored surface under her feet reflected her distorted image.

Someone was standing next to her. She snapped up and saw it was her sister, smiling as usual, her head slightly cocked to the side, her third eye floating near her heart, closed as always.

"Hey, sis, what's that?" Koishi asked and pointed to the side. Satori slowly turned, and a new sound added to the wind – a screech. The mirrored ground was broken, a jagged sucking gap on it.

"Koishi, don't go there…" Satori said, the words coming thick and forced. The wind continued to howl, bringing in grains of sand with it.

"No, silly, I'm not going to—"

Another gap opened under Koishi's feet and she fell in soundlessly, still smiling. Satori couldn't move, she saw her sister moving further, her orange and green dress losing color, turning to black.

And then she disappeared. The wind abruptly stopped, and all the sound was gone. Satori felt tears on her cheeks, felt that Koishi was gone and will never return now, and now nothing can be done, nothing at all. If only she could extend her arm and stop her, if only she paid more attention, if only…

The surface of the gap bubbled, and something crawled out, a wretched, misshapen form covered in black ooze. It slowly stood upright, a gaunt creature, four stumps of destroyed wings behind its back.

"Are… are you—"

The creature threw its left arm forward and latched into Satori's third eye like a viper. The claws slowly closed, crushing it. No pain or sound, just clear liquid mixed with blood came out as the eye crumpled.

Satori tried to grab the arm, but her hands passed right through. The head of the faceless creature split, forming something akin of a mouth. It raised its right arm up, and a dull curved sword formed in it.

"I shall grant your desire," it said in a screeching, broken voice.

And slashed Satori across the face.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The hell crew was flying low, trying to not look too much at the rising sun. The conversations didn't flow, breaking up fast, mostly because Satori was silent since morning.

They woke up early, even before Marisa did, and quietly left the house, allowing the rest of the guests to sleep. Rin pointed out doing this would be very rude, but Satori insisted on leaving and left an apologetic note for Marisa and others. There was definitely something gnawing her, something she refused to voice.

The events of the last night all mixed up and blurred, but they did remember most of it, and the most vivid detail was a request to get the idol to Patchouli before returning back underground. They did so, after a long and circular conversation with the gate guard of the mansion. In the end, with great difficulty the spell card fight was avoided, the price being the captain hat and flier from yesterday. Hong called for Sakuya, and the maid carried the idol inside.

They flew back in sullen silence, hangover weighting them down. The sun rays were piercing, and the day promised to be sunny and bright. Utsuho and Rin were eager to return underground as fast as possible, but Satori flew slowly, her eyes swollen and red, and it looked like she was searching for something.

"Is everything all right, mistress?" Rin asked. The informalities of yesterday were left there.

"Yes, I… just had a nightmare," Satori answered, blinking and rubbing her reddened eyes. "Something about Koishi. I feel I should find her."

"We'll help," Utsuho offered, but her voice was far from eager. She definitely had it the worst, having tried more mushrooms yesterday than the other two combined. Her eyes were bloodshot, and the one embedded in her chest gained even deeper shades of red.

"No, no, return home, I know you both want to. It won't take too much time," Satori said, blinking again. She felt like there was sand in her eyes, and they burned even more than earlier.

Utsuho questioningly looked at Rin, but she just shrugged. If the owner sends the pets away, they go away, and do not return until they are called for.

Satori broke formation and flew somewhere to the side, and Utsuho and Rin continued towards the crevasse to Hell, quickly gaining speed. The speed and cold autumn wind cleared Utsuho's head a bit.

"Hey, Orin, look, an inscribed cow! Wow, locks wicked," she said, pointing down with her arm cannon. The cow was indeed covered in glowing red symbols, a wedged inscription coiling around the animal body in spirals. The cow did not seem to be bothered, munching on the grass with stoic indifference.

"It would look sinister if it didn't look so stupid," Rin said. "Seriously, daemonic cows?"

"Hey, cows kill more people every year than wolves!" Utsuho protested. "Or sharks, I might be remembering it wrong…"

"You are a birdbrain, cows never kill anyone, they moo and make milk."

"Hey, I am not a birdbrain, I read it somewhere…" Utsuho said uncertainly. Did she really read it, or…

"You are a birdbrain," Rin stated. "And don't look so hurt, it's nothing to be upset about, I like you exactly for that."

"Not a birdbrain!"

"Look, I'm sorry," Rin said and made an apologetic gesture. "We are both hung over, so lets get underground before the sun drives us to murder."

She flew even faster, and Utsuho silently followed. Something in her brain clicked and flashed, odd memories surfacing for no reason, long forgotten conversations and meals she had.

"Not a birdbrain," Utsuho muttered.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Satori stumbled through the Human Village. She walked slowly, and the world swayed and wobbled in front of her. Only a few hours have passed, but the itch in all three of her eyes turned to pain, then to piercing pain. She rinsed her eyes with water a few times, but it didn't help, and her field of vision narrowed, the edges turning blurry and dark. She blinked constantly, every blink like another piercing splinter, and tears flowed down.

"Koishi! Koishi, where are you? Koishi!"

She stumbled through the streets, and villagers recoiled from her. She fell a few times, dragging herself up every time, she trudged herself from a well to a well, but it only got worse.

"Koishi!"

Her cries became weaker, and she mostly cried in pain now. The midday sun was blinding, and yet Satori could now barely see where she was going. She made a few circles, and villagers closed windows and pulled the children off the streets at her approach.

She reached the village square and unsteadily walked at the open market, crying and wailing. The vendors ducked under the stalls, and the customers quickly dispersed.

Satori fell down. Dust got in her eyes, but she barely noticed, so great was her pain already. She kept crying, and calling her sister, her small body shuddering. Humans slowly and carefully circled her.

"You know, she looks like she is in pain," said one of the villagers, a pudgy woman with greasy hair.

"Eh, it is a satori. It's a trick to get an emotional response out of us," an old, wiry man said with a sneer. "She's faking it."

Satori didn't say anything, shuddering and crying.

"It looks like she doesn't," someone said from behind.

"They fake it really good," the old man said, spitting a lump of chewing tobacco down. "The youkai are all the same. They look like small, vulnerable girls, but they are really a few hundred years old inhuman monsters. They are all like Yuuka."

Silence. A few villagers knowingly nodded, but others, mostly the younger ones, gave the old man a blank stare. "Who's Yuuka?" one of them asked.

"Well, in any case, we can't leave her like this!" shouted another man, his apron indicating him as a butcher. "I am not going to sell anything today if she lies in front of my stall! Where is Keine when we need her?"

The old man shrugged. "Probably at that bunny hospital, changing bandages. We don't need her anyway, this youkai won't attack us if we don't show weakness. Let's just get some pitchforks and push her away into a ditch."

A few men went for the pitchforks, and others started to disperse, losing interest. Satori cried much quieter now, despite the pain growing only stronger. She managed to get on hands and knees and slowly started crawling away from the mob.

"See? The best tactic is to just ignore them, and they go away," the old man said with a glee.

Satori fell. The pain subsided, turning into cold. She couldn't see anything, crawling somewhere without a purpose. She fell, and didn't stand up this time, the pain and the whole world fading away completely.

A few minutes passed. The men returned and distributed pitchforks around. The girl still didn't move, lying in the dust.

"Is she dead?" the woman asked uncertainly.

"No she isn't, you blokes," the old man said and carefully pushed the pitchfork under the unmoving girl, flipping her body face up. "Youkai don't die like this, they burst into sparks. She's just out, because she was hungry for our emotions and we didn't feed her. Also damn, what's with the eyes…"

A few men joined him, sliding the pitchforks under Satori and carrying her away into a shallow ditch, leaving her there. Satori lay still, barely breathing, her eyes covered in a web of ruptured blood vessels. A woman from before returned a bit later and covered Satori with an old, torn blanket.

A few hours later a slithering red inscription crawled over Satori, coiled around her body and slowly faded in.

She was found only after sundown, when Keine returned and asked if anything unusual happened in her absence.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The waiting room of the impromptu Eientei hospital was an unusually crowded place that day. Daiyousei and Sunny Milk were arguing, Keine tried in vain to calm them down, Rin and Utsuho were pacing around, and a very pale Nitori quietly sat in the corner, sipping from a glass of water and weakly coughing sometimes.

A rabbit fairy was floating in the corner, holding "please wait quietly" sign.

"They are not dead," Sunny Milk said, emphasizing on "not". "No way, nuh-huh. It takes a bit longer for them to reform this time, but they are coming back!"

"They are gone forever! Why don't you understand!" Daiyousei shouted, waving her arms.

"Look, Reimu is doing the best she can, soon, very, very soon they will return…" Keine struggled.

Utsuho paced. There was really something wrong going on with her head, and it intensified. She became… no, not smarter, just gained some weird knowledge out of nowhere. She looked at a withered branch of a hell plant, and knew its name was Cirsium vulgare. There was a sphenoid bone in her skull. There were hundreds of things, and she didn't know why. She blamed the mushroom powder she inhaled, and expected the strange knowledge to go away on its own. It didn't.

Unfortunately, they weren't here because of it. They were here because yesterday night, Satori was brought here in serious condition, and was now on the operating table. The hours dragged, the fairies fought, and Nitori sipped the water.

The door to the waiting room opened and Eirin walked in. She looked tired, her posture slumped, her silver braid in slight disarray. She was wearing a doctor's overall, fresh drops of blood on it.

"Come with me," she said to Rin dispassionately, and Utsuho followed them to another, smaller room. Eirin offered them to sit on an uncomfortable rigid couch, and sat herself on another one, a low plain table between them.

"Well," she started. "First of all, promise me you will not panic."

"She is dead! You killed her!" Utsuho shouted, jumping up. Eirin cringed.

"Well, that was an expected reaction. No, she is not dead and is not going to die. Sit down."

Utsuho remained standing, and Rin pulled her down. Eirin drummed her fingers on the table, gathering her thoughts.

"You know, I never wanted to be a physician," she said. "Everyone expects me to be, but I am really more of a theorist. I brew potions, concoct elixirs..."

"Cut to the chase," Rin ordered. "We don't want to hear your life story. What's wrong with our mistress and when will she be released. Tell us."

"Satori is…" Eirin paused. "She contacted some flesh-eating bacteria. I don't know when, why or how, or what it is even. I've never seen a condition to progress so quickly. Acute uveitis, combined with closed-angle glaucoma. I had to resort to enucleation, for all three eyes. There was no other way, I am sor-."

"You WHAT?" Utsuho screamed and lunged forward, grabbing Eirin by the collar. "How could you do this to her, you monster!"

Rin blinked, not really understanding it. There were a lot of weird words said, and suddenly Okuu snapped.

"Actually, it doesn't sound that bad…" she said with a weak smile, and Utsuho turned to her, her face a grimace of frozen rage.

"Doesn't sound that bad? Of course. All she did was cut out Satori's eyes. Not bad at all."

"How do you even know what enu… forget it, I am way too tired to be surprised," Eirin said, not trying to break free. "I don't have equipment for more sophisticated procedures, it advanced too quickly, and I don't really have to defend my decision. It can't be undone now anyway."

"You… I will kill you!" Utsuho shouted, released Eirin's collar and pointed an arm cannon at her face, energy building up in the back. "I will kill you for what you-"

Eirin moved first, snapping her arm to her pocket and back, throwing a blast of white powder into Utsuho's face. The energy in the cannon shut off, and Utsuho muttered something incoherent and fell forward on the table.

Rin stood up, and Eirin wearily sighed. "What, do I have to sedate you too?"

"Did you do this to Satori on purpose?" Rin asked back.

"Yes, on purpose. And the purpose was that she wouldn't have to walk around with rotting useless eyes, living every day in unbelievable pain from the buildup of pressure in them."

Rin felt her resolve drain. She sat back, and the silence, broken by Utsuho's quiet snoozing, overtook the room.

"Can… can we see her?"

"Tomorrow. I can extrapolate she will be in severe shock when she regains consciousness, eyes are everything for a satori… well, I am no expert on youkai, really. I don't know how she will react."

Rin gulped. "Can we… destroy her? Let Gensokyo bring her back with eyes intact. I know it is cruel, but…"

"It is not a viable option anymore," Eirin said with a wince. "The cycle br…" She cut herself off. "It is not a viable option anymore," she repeated firmly.

Eirin stood up. "Well, let's get your friend to a place she can sleep more comfortably. You should also stay in one of the guest rooms till tomorrow, and prepare yourself for a meeting with your mistress."

Rin didn't respond. Eirin shook her head and went towards the main waiting room. Just wonderful, she thought bitterly, three more people in need of counseling.

Because apparently taking care of unstable, murderous Wriggle, daily visits of Keine with her arm, Sunny and Daiyousei with post traumatic stress disorder was not enough.

She reached the waiting room. There was commotion inside, fairies and Keine gathered in the corner around Nitori in the armchair.

"What is she doing here?" Eirin asked with irritation. Keine turned to her.

"She complained about the pain in her chest, and then she fainted. I am so very, very worried."

Eirin released a short, nervous chuckle. Well, of course. Things always have the capacity to get worse.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Satori was in darkness. No, not a darkness of the starless night, not the clutching, rolling darkness of the dream.

Complete absence of light. Absolute, perfect black. And absolute, perfect silence in the part of her brain where she heard the thoughts of others. A pulsating pain in all her eyes.

Satori tried to move. She couldn't, she was strapped down to something, lying on something soft, her head slightly at an angle. A bed? A hospital bed?

She cried out. She still had her voice, raspy and weak. She heard something shuffle. A door opened? Someone approaching?

"Oh, so you are awake," someone said with a lisp. "I'll call Eirin,"

The footsteps, leaving. Eientei. She was at Eientei, in a hospital. What happened? Why couldn't she see? Did she find Koishi? Why couldn't she sense the thoughts of this youkai? Or was it a human?

The door opened.

"Eirin will be here shortly," the owner of the lispy voice said. "And your pets too. Here, have some water."

A glass to her lips. She drank half of it, and the glass was taken away.

"Why am I tied down? What happened?"

"I am not authorized to answer these questions. I'm Tewi by the way, remember me? I was at the party. Would you like to play a game while we wait?"

"Why can't I read your mind?"

Tewi snickered. "I'd like to answer, but Eirin will kill me. Let's play a game instead."

Shuffling. Hollow sound. Something touched Satori's cheek, small and metal.

"One ball, three cups. You have to know where the ball goes, then guess the right cup."

"I… I can't see anything!"

"Round and round it goes, where it goes, nobody knows," the lispy voice sang, shuffling something.

"But I can't see anything!"

"You don't have to see. You only have to know where the ball is. Round and round it goes, and yet where it goes nobody knows. Guess."

Satori realized something. This was not Eientei, she was trapped by an insane maniac, her eyes cut away. Koishi will never return, nobody returns from the jagged gaps. Soon, her wish will come true and her pets, her only friends, will die.

"Help! Help, somebody! Help!"

People, running in. Someone, pushed to the wall and slapped. A lispy whimper, a protest, a denial.

Orin, crying on her chest.

A long talk with Eirin, a talk about her future. How will she have to learn to live with her disability, the process that will take years. How her other senses will sharpen to partially adjust. How she would have to learn to read again. How others will support her. How…

Then they returned, Orin and Okuu. Orin spoke to her, sat next to her, stroked her hair. She cried again, and Satori cried too, tears dampening the bandages.

But Okuu didn't cry. She stood somewhere to the side, and didn't approach when Satori asked. She was silent their entire visit, and she spoke only once, when it was time for them to leave.

"You will not live like this," she said.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

It was late, and Nitori decided to spend the rest of the evening reading. She started the fireplace and made herself comfortable in front of it.

Her house was still mostly a mess, but the chaos slowly started to take shape at places. Living quarters, the workbench, and large amorphous something covered in fireproof canvas. She also found time to clean the fireplace from all the molten furniture that was sucked into it when Ran unleashed one of her repulsion spell cards.

The pain in her chest subsided over the last few days, thanks to the elixirs and home stay. Eirin refused to see her again after the initial visit, nearly pushing her out with "you are perfectly healthy!" shout. Well, guess she knew better.

There was a knock at the door and Nitori bolted upright, startled. Everyone was on the high alert since the latest events, and unannounced late visits were viewed as bad form, especially after an attack of the dark creature on Keine that left the latter one without an arm.

"Who's there?" Nitori called out, putting her camouflage suit over the blue bathrobe on the way to the door.

"Utsuho. Open up."

Nitori opened the door slightly, not releasing the door chain. Well, Utsuho looked normal enough, even more tidy than usual, her shirt freshly bleached and her skirt ironed, and she didn't sprout any sinister inscriptions or tentacles, so Nitori sighed and let her in. So much for the quiet evening.

"So…"

"Let's skip the small talk, I need your workbench," Utsuho said. She looked around and, after seeing the tool-covered metal table in the corner, she walked confidently to it.

"Do you need help or…"

Nitori fell silent, and her eyebrows slowly went up. The hell raven worked with absolute precision, putting her arm cannon at the table and removing outer covers. She unscrewed something and put it to the side, a metal-encased crystal.

She obviously knew what she was doing, and Nitori decided to not hang over her shoulder. She went back and picked up her book on infrasound, positioning herself so she would keep Utsuho in her sight while pretending to read.

Another crystal joined the first, then two more. Utsuho latched into something inside and pulled the front of the barrel away. All that was left was a short stump, and she affixed it to her wrist.

"You know, if you leave the barrel that short, the blast will be very wide…" Nitori awkwardly said.

"And without most of the power crystals it will be very weak," Utsuho finished for her. "Yes, I know, I need to kill someone at very close range without damaging the body."

"Err…"

"Yes, I have gone insane," Utsuho said with a sad smile, turning the now shortened barrel towards her face and curiously looking down it. "But that's not a big surprise, is it? I've always been somewhat… unstable, me going insane and corrupted and megalomaniacal was a foregone conclusion. Unstable birdbrain Okuu always messes things up," she finished bitterly.

Nitori slowly backed away, and mentally counted the spell cards that were on her. _Optical Camouflage _and _Kappa's Pororoca_, against… what, Pazuzu's corruption? Black magic? Nuclear fusion?

Utsuho, meanwhile, took a step to the side and looked under the canvas. She whistled slightly, a whistle of appreciation.

"You… know what I am building?" Nitori asked, backing away to the fireplace. There was a third spell card stashed under the heavy coelacanth paperweight on top of it, if she could reach it then the fight will be even.

"Well, yes," Utsuho said, letting the edge of the canvas go. "An infrasound parapsychic amplifier. And yes, I am really smart now for no reason and without explanation, to the point I am able to understand the meaning of Pazuzu's inscriptions. Another wonder of Gensokyo..."

"Can we take the fight outside?" Nitori offered. "It is going to be such a mess."

"The fight? Why would I need to fight you? Well, maybe to stop your wish from coming true, but…"

Utsuho trailed off, and Nitori took the opportunity to get her third spell card, _Monster Cucumber_. The whole situation felt absolutely unreal. First of all, she met Utsuho only a few times in her life, their most extensive encounter was Marisa's party, and Nitori didn't remember most of it. Now Utsuho was in her home, utterly insane and out of character, babbling nonsense about the wishes and claiming to know the principles of infrasound detachment of subconscious.

"Ah, forget it," Utsuho said and went for the door. "I don't care what happens to Gensokyo anyway. Good luck with your experiments, you can use my power crystals. Also, one final advice for you – buy yourself some slippers. If you walk in Wellington boots outside and at home, you'll get pes planus."

She opened the door and left. Nitori blinked a few times. What just happened?

What the hell just happened?

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"Intruder on level zero! Intruder on level zero!" the little rabbit fairy screamed, circling around the corridor in panic. The whole Eientei was in nearly the same state, and the interior showed signs of recent spell battle.

Eirin was quickly making her way down the corridor, adjusting her medic hat on the way and checking the string on her combat bow. The alarm sounded close to dawn, and everyone was asleep at the time.

Eirin rounded the corner and was joined by Reisen, who was quickly buttoning her shirt, her tie askew. Eirin continued past her without slowing down.

"The situation?" she asked, but it was more of an order than a question.

"In… Intruder on level zero," Reisen answered, trying to shake the sleep away.

"Who? Why? What wing? Princess Kaguya safe? Where is Tewi?"

"Here!" came the shout from the end of intersecting corridor, and Tewi ran in, huffing, around a dozen of rabbits in haphazardly donned combat gear behind her.

"Intruder on level zero! East wing!" another fairy screamed, flying in. Her legs were moderately burned. "It is Utsuho Reiuji! She is firing at everyone! We are receiving minor injuries! She demands to see you!"

She pointed at Eirin and Eirin swatted her out of her path.

"I don't even want to count on how many levels of wrongness was that last report," she said, pushing forward.

"Three?" Tewi helpfully squeaked.

"Five," Eirin said coldly. "A minor fairy is reporting instead of one of you two, Utsuho have somehow broken through the locks to lev… basement, she is firing inside and the mansion hasn't collapsed yet, she is firing and fairies are somehow receiving minor injuries… and what does she expect to find in the freezer? Satori's eyes, in life support jars?"

"We… don't have Satori's eyes in life support jars, right?" Reisen quietly asked.

"NO!"

"O… okay, just checking…" she said, sulking back.

Eirin stomped down the ladder to the basement, fuming. It was really not her idea to name it "level zero", and give likewise pompous names to the various facilities of the mansion, it was Reisen's. And it was likewise not her idea to make the basement a repository for everything that is associated with evil, namely, the solitary padded confinement in which Wriggle was held, the hazardous chemical laboratory and the morgue, which Eirin kept referring to as "freezer", and which was used as one until recently.

But now it was used as intended, cloth-covered bodies lining the walls. They quickly ran out of stretchers and now just stacked the bodies on the floor. Since the inscriptions escaped, there were close to a dozen now, and the free space was quickly shrinking.

By the time they reached it more of the earth rabbits joined them, forming a small scurrying army behind. The door to the morgue was wide open and covered in scorch marks, and Utsuho stood in the middle of the metal room, shivering. Red wedged inscriptions were coiling around her body. Eirin gave the sign for the others to stand back.

"Hello, Eirin," Utsuho said with a weak smile. "Sorry for waking you up."

Eirin took a careful step forward. "Utsuho, what are you doing?" she asked slowly. "What…"

Utsuho snapped her arm up, pointing the shortened cannon at her. "Stay where you are."

"The inscription won't give you the power to kill me," Eirin said carefully. "Please, tear it away before it is absorbed. If you want to vent, we can go outside and have a spell card fight."

Utsuho gave her a crooked smile. "Vent? Well, I think it would be fun." The smile slowly turned into a determined scowl. "Only it won't give Satori her eyes back, would it?"

"Look, Utsuho, we already discussed that. Her eyes are gone-"

"But her optical nerves aren't, you managed to save them, didn't you?" Utsuho asked, and something in her cannon clicked, powering it up.

Eirin sighed. "Even so, the operation is too delicate. I can't give her new eyes even if I had an acceptable donor, it is impossible. Utsuho, you need to get rid of the inscription before—"

"I believe in you," Utsuho said and weakly smiled again. "You are a genius physician, even if you deny that. Her third eye socket, it is large, and has thick bundles of nerves coming to it from multiple points. You can do it."

She pointed at the eye in her own chest. "Look, it is even the right size."

Eirin took another careful step forward and raised her arm. "Utsuho, the eye in your chest is connected to your heart, I will not be able to dislodge it without killing you. And even with that, there are no guarantees it will be accepted or work as intended. Tear the inscription off, please…"

Utsuho blinked, and two tear drops went down her cheeks. "Sorry for all the mess," she whispered and snapped her arm up, pressing the powered cannon under her chin. She shut her eyes tightly.

"No! Stop, don't—"

There was a brilliant flash and Eirin recoiled, covering her face, the blood drops raining over her arms. Behind her there was a disjointed scream of terror, and the lesser rabbits ran, dropping their tiny weapons. Even Reisen averted her eyes, and she was a war veteran.

The headless body of Utsuho Reiuji crumpled down. It glowed, preparing to dissolve, but the inscriptions hissed, sizzling and keeping it in shape. They faded and the body remained, blood flowing out of the neck and remains of the skull.

Eirin stood upright. Her mouth forming a thin straight line.

"Reisen, get Satori to the operating room. Tewi, help me put the body on the stretcher," she ordered firmly.

Things always have the capacity to get worse.

Always.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	11. Mystery

**Shard 11: Mystery**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The first and only meeting of Gensokyo Anti Pazuzu Squad took place two days after the school massacre in a small and dusty reading room inside the vast library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Since its appearance in Gensokyo, the mansion and the library sometimes served as neutral meeting ground, especially when such important events were transpiring.

Present on site were, first and foremost, Reimu Hakurei and Suika Ibuki, the assault team. The desks of the reading room were narrow, and uncharacteristically sober Suika kept poking Reimu into the shoulder with one of her sharp and long horizontal horns. The miko took all of it stoically, and did her best to ignore Suika's constant apologies.

The fire support team was represented by Alice Margatroid, Nitori Kawashiro and last, but not least, Marisa Kirisame herself. It was still a few days until her proper hospital discharge but she already felt well enough to fly short distances and crack dark jokes. Alice sat close to her, nodding and smiling and Nitori was a bit to the side, the presence of so many people unknown to her causing her a bit of anxiety flare up.

The reserves were represented by Youmu Konpaku, the half-ghost sword mistress and Reisen Udongein Inaba, the lunar rabbit and a former soldier. She kept referring to everyone by their full names, came up with a silly GAPS abbreviation for them collectively and assigned them into squads. Only Marisa and Alice supported that idea.

The room was lit with magic fires that were annoyingly flickering from time to time and had a slightly purple tint to them. Everyone shuffled and made small talk, except for Nitori who tried to shield herself from the world by a book with "Relativity Physics" on the cover.

A faint smell of brimstone seeped into the room and a floating heavy lectern appeared in the doorway. It was carried with great difficulty by a slim demonic or maybe diabolic girl in formal black and white office outfit with slits for dark bat-like wings. She set the lectern at the front of the room and hurried outside.

The smell was replaced by a faint pleasant smell of lavender, and a very sleepily-looking youkai in pink nightgown floated in. She took position behind the lectern and cleared her throat.

"I am Patchouli Knowledge, the librarian and mage in service of Remilia Scarlet, the owner..."

She broke into coughs and leaned on the lectern. It passed quickly though, and she straightened up. "...in service of Remilia—"

"Patchouli, we all know who you are, get to the point," Reimu said irritably.

"But... I don't..." Nitori piped up and everyone looked at her. She hid behind the book.

"Hey, don't worry, I'll tell you," Marisa said with a broad smile. "It's Patchy, ze~. She has a unique ability to turn anything mysterious into boring. You'll see in a short while how."

Patchouli pursed her lips nearly into a single point, all the while keeping a droopy expression. "Marisa, I am right in front of you."

"Well, and what are you going to do about it," Marisa said in clear defiance. "Jump to me, pull that crescent moon pin from your cap and slash my throat open with it?"

"Marisa…" Reimu groaned.

"Or maybe—"

"That is enough!" Patchouli shouted, and it cost her yet another coughing and wheezing fit. Nitori stared, wide eyed, and expected for the purple magician to fall over any minute. She didn't, catching her breath and leaning on the lectern.

"That is enough," she repeated, wiping her face. "There will be no interruptions, jokes or idle banter. Only constructive and meaningful questions when I allow it. Understood?"

"Yes," Reimu said quickly, before Marisa even opened her mouth.

"Good. Koakuma, bring in exhibit A!" Patchouli called out carefully.

"You mean the headless Rumia?"

"Yes, I mean the headless Rumia," Patchouli said without flinching. "We have only two exhibits, not that hard to remember."

She turned back and saw that everyone were looking at her with expressions of pure horror. She put her arms in front of her defensively.

"No, no, it is not what it looks like. It is not the real body, I made a replica out of colored clay."

"Hey, what do you mean "I did?" Koakuma, the demonically devilish girl from before protested, wheeling in a cloth-covered stretcher. "I made it, sat the whole night! You just snoozed and scribbled instructions from time to time!"

"Silence, Koakuma," Patchouli said evenly. "Bring it up like we practiced."

Koakuma audibly ground her teeth and rotated the top part of the stretcher into an upright position facing the audience. The gears in the support mechanism whirred and the cloth fell off.

It was indeed a replica of Rumia, fastened to the stretcher with metal clamps. It lacked the head and most part of the upper torso, and stylized clay blood was splattered on the stylized dress made from black clay. It looked just realistic enough to be horrifying.

"Look, Patchy, you didn't have to—"

"Silence. No idle banter," Patchouli said, cutting Marisa off. "Everything is important, blood, state of the clothing, death spots on arms and legs. Koakuma, open the body."

Koakuma fulfilled this unusual request, as the replica was made of two halves like a morbid book. The frontal part squeaked on the hinges and the members of GAPS were presented to the disgustingly detailed cutoff of the human body, intestines, arteries and organs made of clay of various shades of red and yellow.

And inscriptions, red wedged inscriptions glowing inside, spread all over the interior of the body.

"As you can see," Patchouli said, after allowing the initial shock to set in. "The inscriptions modified her body into a common biological structure instead of spiritual-energetic one. They also fused her soul with said structure, preventing its escape. I will now take your questions, one at a time."

"Patchy, make some sense," Marisa said. Patchouli menacingly glared at her, eyes still droopy, and frowned.

"The spell made Rumia mortal, and she died," she said with disdain. "The tengus and Mystia were infused in a similar way. Also it is worse than a normal human death, because as the body rots, so does the soul. The inscriptions that escaped from the school are all like this, if you die after they take hold or while they coil around you then you are finished, whether you are human or a youkai. Also, these new ones are worse, because they are not bound to location like those used in school were."

"When will you find the way to reverse the spell?" Reimu asked, but it was more of a demand. When, not if or how.

"When I reach the levels of mastery the ancient mages of Pazuzu possessed," Patchouli said dryly. "I am about halfway there, another seven hundred years or so should do it."

Silence flooded the room. Koakuma took the opportunity to leave, backing away.

"It is not a funny joke," Reimu slowly said.

"Because it is not a joke," Patchouli calmly replied. "And even if I dedicate all my time and energy to the research, if I work with Keine, Alice, Marisa and others knowledgeable in magic, it will still take enormous amounts of time and energy. The cycle breakers…"

She started coughing again, and reached into her pocket for a small device to spray medicine into her throat, inhaling with a rasp.

"I deciphered the inscription of the unbroken spell," she said after a pause. "It reads, "_I am the cycle breaker the solidifying eternity the finality of death the perfection of stillness the end" _over and over again, so I called them "cycle breakers". I think it is fitting."

Silence again. Reimu showed no emotion, staring Patchouli down. "I need some good news," she finally said.

"Good news? Well, there are some," Patchouli said, still slightly out of breath. "They can not self replicate, and they can be warded away or destroyed by conventional means while they are in the inscription form. Consider them to be three hundred deadly poisonous snakes set off into the wild. They are also detectable even when they already take hold of someone, like on Wriggle, for example."

Silence again.

"Well then, if there are no further questions, let us move to the really bad news," Patchouli offered.

"Dark humor does not work like this," Marisa said grimly. "Don't even try if you can't do it right."

Patchouli gave her an odd look. "Humor? I do not make jokes, I am always serious. Koakuma, take out exhibit A and bring in exhibit B!"

She managed to suppress coughs this time, looking down and holding her arm to her chest, and the pause was filled by Koakuma winding the stretcher down, closing up Rumia, covering her with a sheet, rolling her out and bringing back a large wheeled blackboard, also cloth-covered. She pulled the cloth down. Reimu cringed.

There were two things depicted on the blackboard, a smooth, normal Yukari's gap to the right and a twisted, broken one to the left. There were "scree" sound effects drawn around the left one.

"Screeching gaps, or "screechers" for short," Patchouli said, appearing to be fully recovered. "Much simpler than cycle breakers, and just as worse. In laymen terms, if you fall into one, you are gone, written from reality forever. They appear randomly in air, so watch where you are flying. I will take your questions."

"Is their appearance Yukari's fault?" Reimu asked evenly.

"The gaps are twisted with the magic of Pazuzu. I lack the information to deduce whether Yukari creates them on purpose or not."

Reimu's eyes flashed for a second with something only Marisa noticed. She leaned in and tugged Reimu by the sleeve. "Hey, Reims, don't blame her, okay? She doesn't do it on purpose, I mean, she's our old loveable Yukarin, right? She visited me before the whole school business, she looked wracked with guilt. And Patchy is mistaken, we'll bring Cirno back, we'll find a way."

Reimu didn't turn, sitting upright and rigid. Marisa released her sleeve and returned back, wincing slightly. The unusual movement caused her a bit of pain. "I'll talk to you later about this in private."

Silence fell again, and unexpectedly it was Nitori who broke it.

"Where do these gaps lead?" she asked, a bit more assertively than usual. Patchouli shrugged.

"I do not know for sure, it requires more extensive research. They appear spontaneously here and there, so it is difficult. In any case, nothing survives inside for longer than a few seconds. If their quantity does not increase they will remain a minor threat, a chance to be hit by one is like being hit by a normal icicle in winter."

Silence took hold of the room again. Reimu stood up.

"From this day on and until further notice…" she said hollowly, "…all combat, lethal or non-lethal, is strictly prohibited. The information received today will be filtered and distributed around in ways that will eliminate the chance of mass panic and rioting."

"I will work on that," Reisen said.

"Agreed. Furthermore, bodies of all deceased that are afflicted by the cycle breakers will be preserved by necessary means until the condition is reversed. Everyone present must work as much as possible on destroying the remaining ones. The party celebrating Marisa's discharge from the hospital is canceled. Everyone will dedicate at least four hours a day- "

She stopped, stumbling on Marisa's gaze. Also, Suika looked absolutely miserable and pleading. Reimu's expression softened and she sighed.

"Oh fine. We are still having the party, we can't fall into despair. Come on Marisa, let's get you back to Eientei…"

Everyone prepared to leave, exchanging small talk and heading for the exit, into the library and out of the mansion. Patchouli remained, leaning on the lectern, and the last one to leave was Nitori.

"Thanks for the lecture, it was really interesting," she said. Patchouli gave her a non-indicative look.

"I do what I am asked," she said after a pause. "Research is my job."

"Just be careful, okay? You are dealing with really dangerous spells here…"

"I am fully aware of what I am doing," Patchouli said with a scoff. "I am protected by multiple layers of reflective glyphs at all times. There is nothing that can go wrong."

Nitori took a step back. "You are joking, right? Like Sanae, with her retirement, right? Only with a straight face…"

"I never joke, I am always serious. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that can go wrong."

Nitori slowly backed to the door. "Uh… sure. Nothing at all, absolutely nothing…"

She disappeared in the doorway and nearly ran away. Patchouli scratched her head, puzzled. What was with her all of a sudden?

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The morning was bright and sunny, but Koakuma could not appreciate it, for the library didn't have windows, relying on magical light to keep the books safe from the damaging sunlight. Her sleeping quarters at the top of the library were cramped, stacked with books she had to rebind or perform minor repairs on, and she often thought of herself living in a prison cell, connected to another, larger and magnificent prison cell, with bookcases up to the ceiling and Patchouli as a cold, merciless jailer.

She finished her morning preparations and floated down to the ground floor, where Patchouli usually spent her mornings. Her mistress indeed was here, sitting at the massive mahogany table, a strange figurine in front of her.

"You overslept," Patchouli stated without turning when Koakuma was close enough. "The main event of today has already transpired, as this idol of Pazuzu was brought in by denizens of the Hell of Blazing Fires."

The idol in front of her was damaged by heat, and Patchouli rotated it slowly, copying the inscription at the base onto blank vellum.

Koakuma didn't find anything to say, floating silently. Her mistress felt a bit better today, able to complete long sentences and even rotate the heavy object in front of her. The figurine glimmered, drawing Koakuma's attention. There was something… magnetic about it.

"The idol is wrongly claimed to be cursed and capable of wish fulfillment," Patchouli continued and scribbled the last symbols down. "How usual for superstitious and ignorant. It is eighty seven percent copper with the rest mostly zinc, some heat-resistant anaerobic spores on the surface, purged with a simple spell. I would use it as a paperweight if it was not that heavy."

"Is there anything required of me?"

"Yes," Patchouli said and stood up from the table. "Take this ugly thing away and decipher the inscriptions at the bottom in your free time. They are harmless, and you could use some practice."

Koakuma sighed. "In your free time" meant that she would have to spend a few hours before sleep on these stupid letters, referencing cuneiform script constantly, and that Patchouli will demand results in a day or so.

Also, the idol wasn't ugly. Despite the damage, it was still magnificent, powerful wings spread out, the right arm held up, attracting her. Beckoning her to come closer.

She briefly considered picking the idol up and bashing Patchouli's skull in with it.

Then a quiet voice entered her head, making a few simple suggestions. She should not be so hasty with her decisions, she should prepare a bit. Take her time and decipher the runes. A splendid, logical idea.

"Koakuma, stop staring and come here. There are shelves I would like you to rearrange today."

Oh yes, a splendid, logical idea.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Patchouli was working. The cycle breaker was floating in the air in front of her, held tightly in the cross-fields of several restraining spells. The red inscription twitched, trying to break free constantly, and Patchouli had trouble concentrating.

It took several days to capture the thing intact. They were relentless in their purpose, and the body count slowly climbed up. Two more minor nameless fairies, way too stupid to get rid of the spell in time and despite the prohibition getting into a danmaku fight over the spot on the beach. Four unconnected incidents with villagers, on different days. Utsuho Reiuji.

The inscriptions killed. Not directly, not with poison or disease, but somehow killed nevertheless. And Patchouli had to find out how.

Over the last few days the mansion was being slowly fortified. Two more layers of spells warding the inscriptions outside. One more at the library. Various miscellaneous defensive spells all over the mansion, new alarms, new wards, new traps…

But most of all, Patchouli defended herself, to the point she almost glowed purple now, and her hair sparked when she combed it. Spell armor, deflectors, automatic spell cards, mind wards. A lot depended on her research, and a mistake was not acceptable. She would not allow for anything to go wrong.

"Hello," a quiet voice came from behind, and Patchouli winced. Remilia Scarlet had the uncanny and very uncomfortable for others ability to sneak up and quietly observe what others were doing for a few minutes before saying hello.

"Lady Remilia, you graced the library with your presence, I am honored," Patchouli said without turning and in a voice that was completely flat. "Unfortunately, I am deep in concentration and can not talk properly at the moment."

"I just wanted to check something really quick. We are fortifying, but are we ready to transport the mansion out of Gensokyo like Kanako did with her shrine or Rinnosuke with his shop? Just in case."

"The main worldshift spell engine is powered down and requires twenty four hours to be operational. In case of sudden attack the outer library walls can withstand any damage, and the library has its own emergency engine."

Remilia didn't respond, and Patchouli continued concentrating on the spell in front of her. Around five minutes passed and she stole a glance back. There was no one behind her, so she sighed and turned back.

One of the spells holding the cycle breaker suddenly failed, crumbling into individual runes and components. The red unholy inscription flexed, lunging at her, and she instantly activated the purging spell. It sizzled, failing too, but one of the three backups did its job, shattering the symbol snake into quickly fading symbols.

Patchouli broke into coughs. What happened, why did it fail? Where did she make a mistake?

"I deciphered the inscriptions on the idol," a voice came from behind. Patchouli turned, still coughing, and saw Koakuma, her assistant holding a bag of flour in her hands for some reason.

The rest of the surrounding spells failed, and Patchouli managed to control her breathing. She straightened up and glared.

"Well, it took you long enough, a week where I managed in a little under ten minutes," she said. Koakuma was an annoyance to get rid of quickly, so she could return to finding out why her spells misfired. "Return to your quarters now, I am busy," Patchouli ordered.

"Don't you want to hear it and check if I haven't made a mistake?" Koakuma asked, and there was something sinister in how she said it. Patchouli frowned.

"Well, all right, but you will leave me alone then," she said. Koakuma cleared her throat and started reciting.

"_I am Pazuzu, the god among gods. I am Pazuzu, the shaper of worlds. Speak my name thrice, I shall grant your desire_…"

She paused, and the pause dragged. Patchouli raised an eyebrow. "Well, and the last line? There are four lines, on four sides of the base."

Koakuma gave her a wide, insane grin.

"_Stupid librarian dies in a fire_," she said and flung the bag of flour forward.

It burst in the air, a cloud of particles to Patchouli's face. She gasped, and inhaled, and coughed, and the cough didn't stop this time. She doubled over, reached for her inhaler, but when she pressed down on it instead of dispensing medicine it just emptily clicked.

"What's the matter, forgot to recharge?" Koakuma said, keeping her insane smile, and produced a small device from her own pocket. "Or do you suspect your faithful assistant gave you an empty one today on purpose?"

"Give it… back…" Patchouli choked out, falling to her knees, her lungs burning, blood rushing in her ears. "Can't… breathe…"

She fell and tried to crawl, but Koakuma slowly floated closer and stepped on her back, pushing the air out.

"All your spells, all your knowledge, all your power – useless against a bag of flour. How pathetic. A fitting end for someone like you."

"Koa…"

"Your life is connected to this library, _Patchy_," Koakuma spit, pushing her foot down. "It will burn and you will die, without any assistance from the cycle breakers. Assistance, get it? It's a joke, because I was your assistant in life, and now I will assist your death. But you don't get jokes, do you?"

Patchouli didn't answer, lying motionlessly on the floor, each her breath a shallow, chocking rasp, disturbing the layer of flour on the floor. Koakuma released her foot and prepared her best fire spell, the one she learned by herself in preparation for this glorious, glorious day.

Oh yes. Everything will burn.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	12. Parody

**Shard 12: Parody**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"Damn, you're heavy," Koakuma grunted, sliding the limp body of Patchouli off her shoulders. "But it's too late to back down now, don't you agree?"

Patchouli responded by a series of loud wheezes.

The fire spell didn't work as intended. In fact, it didn't work at all, the fire wards of the library converging on it and snuffing the flames out instantly and without any smoke. Koakuma thought she disabled them, but it turned out Patchouli had more reserves than an average youkai cat has lives.

What was the most annoying was the fact that Patchouli never lost consciousness completely, trying to fight back weakly and berating Koakuma for her stupidity all the time. Koakuma dragged her half the way to the basement already, but it took more than fifteen minutes, and the probability of someone seeing them was only getting higher.

"Koakuma, you are… the thickest bonehead… I have ever met in my entire… life…"

"Shut up," Koakuma said and slapped Patchouli on the face. "Why didn't you lose consciousness like I expected? Ah, forget it…"

She again lifted Patchouli up and continued towards the basement. Flying in tight corridors of the mansion, especially with such a weight was impossible, and they had to stop and hide every time a maid fairy flew past them.

They covered about a hundred yards more and Koakuma stopped again, completely exhausted. She propped a wheezing and choking Patchouli against a large ugly candelabrum and rubbed her aching shoulders.

It was such a simple plan. To mess with the spells so they would misfire and the cycle breaker would infect Patchouli. To use the flour she stole from the kitchen to knock her out, then kill her. Assume the position as the mistress of the library and serve lady Remilia faithfully.

But Patchouli preferred to err on the safer side, installing layers upon layers of redundant spells, the cycle breaker was destroyed, so Koakuma moved to plan B – burn everything, worry later. In retrospect, it was not that of a smart plan. As was plan A. And both didn't work.

Now she had to find another way to keep Patchouli isolated from the world until she finds another cycle breaker or finds a way to disable all fire wards. And the only solution was to lock her up, preferably in a location where no one would expect to find her, and the wine cellar fit perfectly for that.

Minor complications included dragging a weakly struggling mage through half of the mansion and then returning to the library and tidying up a bit to hide the evidence.

Koakuma felt she rested enough to drag Patchouli further. She sighed and pulled the body up.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"Koakuma, stop it, you are embarrassing yourself," Patchouli said, sounding bored.

She was tied down to the support beam with thick and dirty hemp rope, and her clothes were still covered in flour. Being dragged from the library she was now in her socks, as her slippers got lost somewhere along the way. There were a few a large bruises forming on her face, a result of falling over and Koakuma slapping.

The wine cellar of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was large and spacious, and racks of vintage wine lined the walls. Remilia Scarlet was quite a gourmand, and old, dust-covered bottles were stored with care and love.

Also, the wine cellar was visited at least once every day by Sakuya, the maid replacing the mousetraps and dusting away nests of spiders, but Koakuma didn't know that, assuming it was visited only in preparations for weekly official dinners. She also assumed a lot about the surrounding world, like, for example, that she was not noticed while she dragged Patchouli in or when she stole the flour, and that crime alone warranted a swift, cruel and unusual punishment.

"Koakuma, stop it, you are embarrassing yourself," Patchouli repeated, but her assistant didn't care, tying her to the support beam in a very haphazard an unprofessional way.

Koakuma first tried to strap the mage tightly across the chest so she could barely breathe, but the knot turned out a mess and she gave up, fastening only the arms at the best of her ability. To say her ability was poor would be an understatement. A creature with tentacles for arms would do a better job.

"You know, there is a book on nautical knots in the library, look it up," Patchouli suggested.

"You… you will suffer for your attitude!" Koakuma shouted and slapped the tied mage again. By the way, Patchouli grew tired of all the slaps pretty quickly and formed two small shock-absorbing seals under her cheeks so it would not hurt. She didn't show it of course.

"AAA!" she cried out, imitating pain at best of her non-existent actor ability. "It hurts so much, Koakuma. Please stop and turn away from evil, it is not too late," she finished in a flat, unconcerned voice.

"No, you will suffer!" Koakuma triumphantly spoke and slapped Patchouli again, producing another emotionless "AAA".

"I will torture you with this tantalizing food and water, and you will never taste them! Also, unable to move, you will disgrace and soil yourself!" she continued and gestured dramatically to the plate and a glass out of Patchouli's reach. Patchouli raised an eyebrow. She knew spells that allowed her to go not only without food, water or sleep, but without air for extended periods of time, not to mention metabolic modifying ones.

"Oh no, Koakuma, whatever I did to you to deserve all this," Patchouli droned. "Repent your evil ways, Pazuzu corrupted you. Turn back to the light."

Koakuma responded with a burst of evil, cackling laughter, and after slapping Patchouli again for a good measure and receiving another half-hearted "AAA" she left, slamming the door behind her.

Patchouli sighed, casting a quick spell and undoing the knots. This all was not very funny, because with all the preparations and warding she put on the mansion and herself she forgot to pay close attention to Koakuma, and the stupid demonic girl got herself corrupted somehow. And now she had to make sure the girl would not hurt herself or the others with her stupidity.

Was this how Hatate fell? A foolish and ambitious getting drunk on power, how simple and how ultimately tragic in the end.

Patchouli flexed her arms, preparing the complex incantation. First priority - warn the others, save Koakuma. Second priority – find the source of corruption, checking the idol again first, destroyed inscriptions second. Study the effects, come up with a solid strategy for cleansing. Notify Reimu of the results.

It was time to get to work.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Koakuma soared, both figuratively and literally. Without the warding spells holding her back, she delved deeper into the foul Pazuzu's magic than Patchouli ever hoped to.

The cycle breaker was not just a simple binding spell. Inside there were hundreds, thousands different ones, dormant, waiting to be released. Even the scattered fading symbols of the destroyed one held power, unbelievable power.

She was being pushed forward, a whisper in her head moving her towards the books she needed. She would design her own spells, her own incantations, using only her own knowledge.

A few days before her flour attack she left the mansion at night, sneaking away with the idol. It was a tool, a key to the glorious future of the world. A quiet voice in her head suggested where she should leave it, and she did so without hesitation. She would not need it anymore anyway.

Oh yes, unbelievable arcane power. And the fact that she could not undo yet even the simplest global ward around the mansion meant nothing. In a few days, she will be able to, and then… then…

"Hello," a quiet voice came from above, and Koakuma jolted up. She has fallen asleep in one of the reading rooms of the library, exhausted from all her recent research. Around her, scrolls covered in inscriptions were scattered, and in front of her stood Remilia Scarlet, the ancient vampire owner of the mansion. She was picking her teeth with a small intricate toothpick.

"Um, hello, lady Remilia, what an honor..." Koakuma said slowly. Remilia rarely visited the library, preferring to read at her bedroom where Koakuma carried books for her. They barely spoke, and Koakuma was generally treated around the mansion as one of the lesser fairy maids. This sudden attention was not comforting at all.

"Where is Patchouli?" Remilia simply asked, but Koakuma felt nothing but dread. That was it, the big moment, she knew this question will come up eventually, and she prepared a well thought-out and convincing lie in advance.

"She is not feeling well and asked not disturb her," Koakuma said, her voice almost not trembling.

"I don't care," Remilia said and gracefully spit a tiny piece of bone into a hanky. "Lead me to her, I need urgent advice on practical application of circular acid warding seals."

Koakuma blinked, stunned. Acid warding seals were her own recent hobby, she researched them extensively in her free time… before the whole Pazuzu business, that is. She didn't need Patchouli for that!

"No, she is really sick… maybe I can help…" she said, almost a whimper. Remilia glanced at her.

"Well, if you say so," she said after a pause, sitting down. "I'd like to see how well Patchouli did her job in teaching you discipline," she added, throwing the wedged-inscribed scrolls to the ground.

Koakuma could do nothing but comply, buzzing away quickly and returning with her notes. She started explaining, and discussing the details…

Something was not right. Her mind was full of inscriptions, and she could not concentrate on the acid seals. She fumbled and stuttered, but Remilia seemed to not notice, asking her questions relentlessly.

In a little while she left, and Koakuma discovered she was now drenched in sweat. She never thought it would be so difficult, but she managed. She fooled Remilia, and bought herself some time. She will succeed after all.

Koakuma returned to the basement later, and to her relief found out that Patchouli was still tied up to the beam, her head limply hanging and food and water untouched. She left her where she was, returning to the library quickly. There was research left to be done.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

It was even better than she expected. On the next day, Koakuma managed to undo one of the four seals keeping the cycle breakers out and destroy most of the protective fire seals in the library. She designed her own spell, a very original one.

It was a mind-affecting spell, fused with a temporary cycle breaker. It showed a version of the perfect black world, accentuating the impurities of the affected, leaving them with no option but to kill themselves quickly. Koakuma was so proud she came up with it herself, with no help from outside at all.

She scribbled and scribbled, and more and more blank scrolls became covered with inscriptions. She started to draw a large icon of Pazuzu spanning several bookshelves.

"Hi!" a cheerful voice called out, and Koakuma froze, turning slowly, very slowly.

Flandre Scarlet escaped the basement. No, not the one where Patchouli was held, the other, deeper one, designed specifically to hold the younger sister of Remilia in.

Flandre looked a lot like Remilia, except her clothes were red with pink trim (and Remilia's were the other way around), and her wings were made of bent metal rods with crystals hanging on them instead of normal Remilia's bat ones. They also differed in personality a bit, Remilia being childish and wise, and Flandre being childish and apocalyptically destructive.

"H…hi," Koakuma choked out, and Flandre rose in the air, leveling with her in altitude. She flashed a smile.

"Where is Patchy? I want her to read me a book!"

Koakuma gurgled, and Flandre cocked her head to the side. "You ok?"

"What… book?" Koakuma finally found the strength to ask.

Flandre put her hand to her chin, deep in thought. Her face showed unbelievable mental process going on in her brain, not just gears turning, empires rising and falling, universes created and destroyed, all for a single glorious purpose – to remember the name of the book.

Then her expression turned into one of helplessness and Koakuma realized that Flandre forgot the name of the book. Which meant that Flandre was about to switch to something else, probably playing. Which in turn meant that a quick but terrifyingly painful and gory death awaited Koakuma in a few seconds.

"Uh… I forgot, sorry," Flandre said. Then, her face brightened. "But worry not, I came prepared! I have a memo!"

Flandre then looked at her palm, where something was written. "Calcu-lus: Early Trans-cen-dentals," she read slowly, by syllables.

Koakuma discovered firsthand what it felt like when Patchouli had her coughing fits. It felt like the air in suddenly escaped the room and the whole space was occupied by Flandre's smile, her crimson eyes and the jingling of the crystals at her wings.

Worst of all, Koakuma knew of this book, she stacked it a few days ago. She tried to remember where, but her head was filled with symbols of Pazuzu, she couldn't, she couldn't…

She caught her breath. She would get some other book, Flandre wouldn't know the difference. Deciding on that, Koakuma picked the first one from the algebra section and started reading, stuttering and stumbling every other line.

Flandre managed to pretend to be interested for whole three minutes, an amazing, miraculous feat in itself. Then she flew away, and the book fell out of Koakuma's numb fingers, hitting the floor with a dusty thud.

Koakuma felt like she just aged a century. Somehow, she survived, survived even and encounter with Flandre. And Pazuzu didn't help her, he only interfered. Pazuzu was useless, he...

Then something flashed in her brain, a single symbol flashed and all her doubts were swept away. She was worthy. She will paint the world black. Her desire will be granted, and no one will stop her. All obstacles will be removed.

She clenched her teeth and returned to scribbling.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

A knock at the library door pulled Koakuma back to reality. How many hours have passed since she started her research? Ten? Twenty? Over a hundred?

She flew to the door, but when she passed the reflective metal lampshade on the way, she abruptly stopped.

"What the hell…" Koakuma whispered. Her hands, forearms and face were covered in ink, long wedged inscriptions coiling in spirals. Cycle breakers, wards, a start of the spell that would create Pazuzu's draining spell armor… when did she start drawing on herself? When did she…

The knock repeated, and Koakuma frantically tried to erase the inscriptions from her skin. They held, but at least she managed to cover the ones on her face with a minor illusion. She will make a convincing lie again, she decided.

She opened the door, and the one at her doorstep was Sakuya Izayoi, the chief maid of the mansion. She looked tidy as usual, her silver hair neatly braided and her maid outfit ironed. She held an empty tray under her arm.

"Hello, Koakuma," she said plainly. "Have you seen Patchouli? I need to talk to her."

"She is sick," Koakuma said, and was surprised how strange her own voice sounded, distorted and hollow.

"I need to see her anyway, it's about all her research. Lady Remilia thinks she really went too far with all this."

She pointed behind Koakuma's shoulder, and the devil girl turned, seeing now how the library looked like.

The bookcases were always movable in all three planes and could be suspended in air if needed. And most of them were right now, forming an enormous winged humanoid shape. Everything was covered in inscriptions, walls, ceiling, and some of them hanged in the air, glowing slightly.

"It's not… what it looks like," Koakuma croaked.

"Well then, what is it?" Sakuya demanded.

Koakuma couldn't find words. "It's… it's…"

"I think you are corrupted, along with Patchouli," Sakuya said, and a thin throwing knife appeared in her hand.

Koakuma threw her arm forward, the incantation forming nearly by itself. The string of glyphs jumped from her hand on Sakuya's face and skittered into her nostril like a wriggling black centipede.

Sakuya opened her mouth to scream, but the next moment her expression relaxed and eyes went blank. The tray fell, clanging and rolling on the floor. Koakuma stumbled back, and Sakuya slowly grabbed her knife with both hands, turning the blade towards her chest, an unnatural, mechanical movement.

"My blood to paint the world black," Sakuya said evenly and pushed the blade in.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Koakuma picked up her now stuffed duffel bag and put it on. Only the necessities, tools needed to survive for a few days. She would not need anything else anyway.

She glanced over the library again. All the fire protective seals were disabled now, the books would burn, and nothing would remain from the wall scribbles when this place goes down in flames. If anyone cares to investigate they would find only smoldering ruins.

She stepped to unmoving Sakuya and flipped the body over, careful not to get the blood on her shoes. The blade went all the way down, but the handle remained relatively clean and Koakuma pulled the knife out with little difficulty. Odd, but Sakuya didn't look pale, and if not for her complete stillness and death stare, she could pass up for a living person. Koakuma blamed it on the time manipulation abilities she had in life.

Sakuya's watch proved to be a problem, as she first had to get the blood off it. The burning phrases in her head pushed her further, whispering solutions to every minor obstacle that was in her way. Destroy the cycle breaker warder seals on the way out. Leave nothing to chance and deal with Patchouli personally before leaving.

This was the part Koakuma wanted to postpone as much as it was possible. After all, it would be extremely disgusting, like squashing a cockroach with a bare hand. She would probably use a spell to save herself from the unpleasant fluids. She quickly decided on how to proceed and made her way towards the basement.

Just as before, Patchouli was limply hanging in the ropes, but she was conscious this time and weakly lifted her head at Koakuma's approach.

"You bonehead," she whispered, but Koakuma said nothing, stepping forward and pulling the knife out instead. Patchouli looked at the gleaming metal with her usual droopy expression.

"You decided to set me free, right?"

"Yes," Koakuma said and stepped behind the support beam, cutting the main knots that held the rope with a knife easily. Patchouli crumpled to the floor, barely moving.

"Get up, let's head back to the library," Koakuma said.

Patchouli tried to stand up, but she was way too weak to even crawl. Koakuma pulled her up by the back of the collar and dragged her upstairs, not caring that she nearly choked the helpless ancient mage by doing so. She dragged her all the way to the library and dropped her near Sakuya.

Patchouli didn't cry or say anything, staring at the room and the bloody corpse of her colleague with an expression of complete indifference.

"So… this is how it ends…"

Koakuma snickered. From Patchouli's point of view, it all probably looked like a nightmare. After all, less than a week ago she was all serious and arrogant, ordering her around with disdain and indifference. And now… well, actually not much has changed, really.

"Yes, this is how it ends," Koakuma spit. "All I ever wanted was for you to respect me, to recognize me as a person, to admit even once that I am right. But you never did, and so I asked Pazuzu to give me power to make you understand. Maybe when your whole world burns you will finally understand."

"Koakuma, you are a bonehead and always will be," Patchouli said. "I wanted to see how corruption will affect you and you remained an idiot until the end. Please, do not embarrass yourself any further."

Koakuma didn't respond, smiling cruelly instead and started walking towards the library door. She turned in the doorway.

"Koakuma…"

"You never cared about me, you treated me like garbage, called me good-for-nothing and stupid. You never gave me credit where credit was due, you never helped me when I tried something new and I had to always do everything myself. You were blind, locked away from the world in your little cube of books. The corruption has nothing to do with what's going to happen next. Die, _Patchy_."

Koakuma closed the door. Patchouli still weakly called out for her, but it all didn't matter now. Only the holy quest of Pazuzu was important and allowed no distractions or delays. The temple would be activated, to paint the world black. To make the world perfect.

Koakuma put her arms up, and the mansion around her lit up, burning runes appearing and crawling on the walls before sliding inside the library through the cracks. Inside, they lost shape, turning into mundane clusters of fire that were quickly put out by the fire extinguisher systems.

The thirteen different systems Koakuma missed.

"Hi!" Flandre chirped from behind and shoved Koakuma in the back.

The force of the shove propelled her forward through the library door. And yes, the door was closed, so it meant that her body was used like an impromptu cannonball, shattering through the wood.

Koakuma survived that, just as she survived the next three bookcases she burst through, stopping at the fourth one. The inscriptions around her body almost screamed, absorbing most of the damage. Koakuma stood up to face her opposition and froze.

Patchouli was floating around three feet above the ground, glowing bright purple. So did Remilia, albeit in red, flanking her from one side, and so did very alive and bloody Sakuya from the other, her aura silver. Flandre was behind, skipping and dragging her bent spear of absolute destruction behind her.

"I killed you!" Koakuma shrieked, pointing at Sakuya. "You died! Your eyes were open and all!"

Patchouli slowly shook her head. "Koakuma, I was preparing Sakuya for the confrontation with you for three whole days. She had so many warding and regenerative spells on her she could survive the center of the sun, not a mere knife to her heart."

Koakuma looked in horror as Flandre took place beside her sister, yawning and leaning on her spear. It dawned to her what power she was about to face. Koakuma stumbled back.

"You… you…"

"We knew it all," Patchouli said sadly. "And we tried to save you, remind you of the person you were."

"Remember you read me a book once?" Flandre asked. "There were pigs, and wolf, and houses."

Koakuma remembered. Of course she remembered, it was a few years ago, and the horror of the close proximity to Flandre, who could destroy anyone utterly with a simple touch still hasn't worn off. She had to…

The inscriptions in her head pushed her a step forward. She formed a black ball of energy around her hand. "You are all nothing before the power of—"

A blink of light, and Sakuya was behind her, wringing her wrist, the ball of darkness fading. Another blink, red this time, and Remilia pushed at her from behind with all her weight, bringing Koakuma to her knees. Patchouli shook her head again.

"I am sorry, Koakuma, but it is too late for your redemption, you can not be saved. We tried, but it is too late. I am going to kill you myself. Hold her head."

With her free hand, Koakuma pulled out the watch she got from Sakuya and clicked it. It had about as much effect as clicking a normal watch produces.

Remilia pushed Koakuma's head back, exposing her neck. Patchouli slowly inched closer, removing a crescent-shaped pin from her hat. Its tip gleamed once.

"It's… it's a joke, right? Right?" Koakuma spoke, her voice becoming smaller and smaller as Patchouli approached. "You are not going to…"

"It is not a joke," Patchouli said coldly. "And I planned on killing you soon anyway, I never allow my apprentices to rival me in power. I am glad you made it so much easier for me."

She stopped in front of Koakuma and raised her hand with a pin.

Koakuma's eyes filled with tears. But… she worked so hard for this! She always helped, even though she got so little in return! She always thought that Remilia was a good person deep inside, and that Flandre was too, and Patchouli…

How could Patchouli lie to her over the years? How could she look at her, every day, with her sleepy expression, knowing that one day she would kill her? How…

"I'm sorry!" Koakuma screamed, tears flowing. "I'm sorry! I don't want my wish! I don't want power! I want to live! I just want to live!"

Something broke inside her heart, something bubbled inside her throat. She convulsed, and Remilia released her. She fell to the floor, twisted black inscriptions crawling out of her body and dying, turning into black, fetid pools.

Then she lay, quietly sobbing, the residents of the mansion circling her, their auras gone. The silence was sublime and poetic.

Then Flandre raised her spear to poke Koakuma in the side. Remilia held her hand.

"But I wanna!"

"Shh, it's a very dramatic moment, and you are ruining it," Remilia quietly scolded. "Let's leave them, it is time for the apprentice and master to reconcile."

"I am not reconciling with her," Patchouli said. "She will be punished for her stupidity. Also, do not forget each one of you owes me ten thousand yen, I won the bet."

Koakuma's eyes snapped open and she sat on the floor. "You… bet on me?"

"Yes," Patchouli said and coughed. With the aura gone, so was her temporary health. "I said I will save you using fear and the power of your own self-preservation, and Remilia bet on the power of love."

Koakuma blinked. "What?"

"And I said the only way to save you was to go back in time and stop you from finding the idol in the first place," Sakuya said thoughtfully. "Hong said the only way to rid you from corruption was by physical training, and Flandre mostly just laughed and crawled on the ceiling. Eventually we went with Patchouli's plan, and it worked."

She smiled, and so did Remilia. Koakuma blankly stared. "You… you are all monsters…"

"Said the demon girl on the floor, surrounded by remnants of otherworldly corruption she allowed into her body," Patchouli said dryly. "Seriously, just stop embarrassing yourself and get up. You are safe, so let us start our research on the corruption source. Bring the idol in here."

"The idol? But it's not in the mansion, I gave it to—"

She was cut off by a piercing wail of sirens. The floor shook, and books fell over from the bookcases all around. Patchouli stumbled back, as if she herself was just hit in the stomach.

"Two thirds of outer defences… destroyed…" she exhaled. "Sakuya… get Hong… in here, now…"

Sakuya nodded, and her form blinked, reappearing a second later with a very afraid and slightly burned gate guard. It also looked like Hong was sleeping at the time of the attack, as she shook her head from the daze.

Patchouli coughed into her hand, and there was blood on it when she put it down. She nearly fell, and Remilia ran to support her. Koakuma kept blinking at all this.

Another impact, and an enormous fireball rolled into the library from the destroyed door. Patchouli winced in pain, and a few bookcases blocked the hole, solidifying into stone. The fire died out, extinguished by the spells.

"What's happening?" Flandre asked, tugging at the sleeve of her sister. Everyone present turned to Patchouli.

"We are attacked…" she wheezed and used her inhaler. It helped a little. "By omega class… coherent beam weapons. Deus ex machina... almost literally. The temple-"

Another impact, and all the lights inside the library went out. The floor tilted, and heat started pouring in from the walls.

"Do something about it!" Remilia shouted in darkness. In response, Patchouli did something completely unexpected from her – she laughed, laughs interrupted by coughs.

"Koakuma… you were right, all along," she said, and a small glowing glyph appeared in front of her, lighting the small circle of terrified vampires, youkai and a human. "I tend to forget about the world outside, locked in my comfortable cube of books. All the power and knowledge, and still I am weak, because I do not look outside. And because I do not multitask."

Another blast, and one of the walls turned orange, then white-hot. The bookcases lining it caught fire and automatically detached, extinguisher spells trying to keep the fire in check. The library started to fill with smoke.

"Patchouli," Remilia said grimly, grabbing the mage by the shoulders. "You told me the library can withstand any amount of damage. You told me it has an autonomous power source and is able to break the boundaries of worlds on its own, even if the rest of the mansion is destroyed. Apparently, the first part was a lie, and I would not like to hear right now the second one was too."

Patchouli smiled again. "I told you it could sustain damage… for as long as it is needed to power the engine to escape. I just didn't want to bore you… with a countdown that starts from… one hundred and eight."

She reached into her pocket and produced a tiny book. She opened it, and small purple symbols: 012 appeared above it, quickly counting down to zero.

"Goodbye, cruel world," Patchouli said.

"You know, these words are most often used in a different context," Sakuya pointed out.

"I know. It was a joke," Patchouli said with a smirk, and all the numbers above the book turned to zero.

A beam hit, but before it was able to melt through the wall everything inside the library glowed with energy and the whole stone cube vanished, leaving quickly dispersing purple haze behind.

And thus ends the tale of the last ones who managed to escape from the doomed world in time.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	13. Poetry

**Shard 13: Poetry**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The padded cell in the basement of Eientei mansion lived up to its name. It was a small windowless cube, walls, floor, door and ceiling padded with white and thick shock and magic absorbing cushions. Latrine was in the corner, corked up by a similar cushion, and ventilation was provided by series of narrow slits near the ceiling.

"I want to get out of here," Wriggle whined, huddling in the corner. "I want to be at the forest with my friends. I want to see Mystia again. I want to see Yuuka again. Let me out, let me out, let me out…"

Eirin sat cross-legged in the center of the room, listening patiently, but her patience was quickly running out. So far, her progress with the patient was absolutely zero, and almost two weeks has already passed since the school events. She never expected this case to be so difficult.

Wriggle fell silent, rocking back and forth. She was dressed in a simple green patient overalls, and her eyes looked sunken and desperate.

"Wriggle," Eirin said firmly. "I can't let you out, you are unstable, delusional, violent and, most importantly, you are firing danmaku in your sleep. I can't let you out until you improve."

"I am not violent," Wriggle said and started rocking sideways. "Those rabbit fairies all deserved it, all of them. They said Yuuka doesn't exist."

"Yuuka does _not_ exist. You made her up, there was never an elder youkai of flowers in Gensokyo, I checked the records."

Wriggle quietly laughed. "Of course, you checked the records. Of course you did. You did, and there was nothing there, because Keine already ate everything. Look, I wrote poem about Yuuka, look…"

She pointed at the sheet of paper that was on the ground beside her. Only soft paper and pieces of charcoal were allowed now, since the accident a few days ago when Wriggle pushed the pencil under the skin of her forearm, all the way through. And only Eirin visited her now.

"Wriggle," Eirin said calmly. "There is nothing there but unintelligible scribbles."

Wriggle laughed softly again. "Of course. But I remember it by heart, listen to it:

_Yuuka, you are_

_The light of my life_

_The droplets of blood_

_In the glint of a knife_

_... _

_Yuuka, you live_

_In the light of the night_

_Inside of obsession_

_Inside human fright_

_... _

_Yuuka, your love_

_Is a beautiful flower_

_Lights our pathway_

_Your smile and power_

_... _

_Yuuka, your memory—_

"Stop it," Eirin ordered. "I've had enough listening to this nonsense, you can talk for hours about her. I don't know why medication fails on you or why you are so stubborn, but this can't go on like this."

Wriggle stopped rocking, sitting rigidly, pressing her back into a corner. "You know, this doesn't sound very professional of you. It's like you are torturing me on purpose."

Eirin threw her arms up. "I am not a psychiatrist or therapist! I am not a physician! I am a personal assistant to princess Kaguya, and I have a degree in pharmacology!"

"He-hee," Wriggle chuckled. "Perhaps you need counseling of your own. It's okay, I can listen to your insignificant problems,"

Eirin stood up and pointed between Wriggle's eyes. "Insignificant? Yesterday, a person blew her head open right in front of me, so I could take her organ and transplant it to other person, whose eyes I had to remove a few days before that. Your imaginary Yuuka is nothing, _nothing_ compared to that."

Wriggle kept smiling and chuckling.

Eirin headed for the door and clicked the lock open. "If you do not improve, and quickly," she said without turning, "I will have to resort to methods that are considered unethical. Your stay is taking away too much of Eientei's energy."

She left, and Wriggle was left alone. She craned her head towards the ventilation slits.

"Everyone falls in their own, unique way," she said and smiled. "Isn't that right, friends?"

She received a quiet skittering as a response.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Four days after Marisa's "welcome back" party she decided she felt well enough to go on a solo hunt for cycle breakers. The combined efforts of GAPS and other concerned residents of Gensokyo finally started to bring some results, reducing the number of inscriptions in the wild by two thirds or so, and the screeching gaps now appeared much more infrequently, twice or three times a day at most.

The condition of Marisa's house slowly started to return to its usual state of chaotic disarray. In the end, all she gained from her injury was a lesson in alertness. Strange, but for a few days already she couldn't remember who caused her this injury, the details of that evening remained, but the details of her attacker faded into a blur. Did she had green hair? Was it even a female?

Marisa donned her combat apron and, taking the broom with best maneuverability capabilities, went for the door. She opened it, and was greeted by a gust of chilly autumn air from outside. Something batted at her leg lightly.

Marisa looked down and saw it was a small pink rectangle, a letter. Puzzled, she picked the envelope up and turned it over. It was closed with a small pink heart, and had a cursive "_To Marisa_" at the side.

"Hehe, I still got it, ze~," Marisa said to the letter and used her pinky to undo the heart seal.

Marisa received love letters from time to time, coming from three general categories. First, there were lesser youkai that confused love with "thank you for not blasting me" emotion, their letters coming often on bark and leaves. Second, there were kids from the Human Village that confused love with "you are so cool, Marisa!" feeling. And third, there were old perverted men of the village with lustful affection for little witch girls. Granted, she received only a single letter from such a person so far but it warranted a very special and disgusting category.

This letter, however, looked normal enough, written in neat and clear script. The handwriting seemed familiar.

_Dear Marisa, _

_We have known each other for quite some time already, but in view of recent events I can't hide my feelings any longer. The mere thought of possibility of losing you forever haunts me, keeping me awake at night. Since we met, you were my guiding star, my everything, but you never viewed our relationship as more than friendship._

_I fear that a sudden confession will harden your heart against me, so my identity will remain a secret for a while. In the meantime, I want to express my feelings with this poem:_

_As you fly, held aloft by the power of magic_

_In the current of wind, through the wind of forever_

_I can only foresee that the end will be tragic_

_And you will disappear, in gaps of the never_

_... _

_So allow my heart to protect you from pain_

_And allow my power to shield you from rain_

_Of the troubles, of hurt, of the loss and the cold_

_All I wish for is you in my arms to just hold _

_Your secret admirer._

"Your secret, clichéd and slightly creepy admirer," Marisa added aloud. She threw the letter inside the house, and after making a graceful curve through the air it took its rightful place among the assorted pile of miscellaneous paper garbage on the floor.

There were inscriptions to be fought and incidents to be solved. She could of course dedicate time and energy to finding out who it was, but what was the point? If this person had serious intentions, he or she would make a proper confession later, preferably without rhyming.

As of late, rhymes unpleasantly reminded Marisa only of a certain verse at the feet of the idol.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Eirin led Wriggle across the basement of Eientei. Wriggle was wearing a straightjacket, too large for her and thus ineffective, so the restraints had to be reinforced by leather straps all around. It was the middle of the night, and their footsteps echoed hollowly around the stone corridors.

"A lot of time you have given me to improve," Wriggle said, her voice a mix of bitterness and psychotic giggling. "The whole three days. How professional."

"Shut up," Eirin barked. "Your presence at Eientei quickly depletes the energy of the mansion. How you are capable of doing so with your pathetic excuse for danmaku is beyond me, but this has to stop."

"Then let me go or kill me," Wriggle suggested and turned, her face forming a glee. "You want to kill me, don't you?"

"I don't want to kill you," Eirin said flatly.

"Liar. It will be so easy, I am afflicted by the cycle breaker already. One more corpse into your overflowing morgue. So much easier to look after. So much quieter."

Eirin didn't respond, pushing Wriggle in front of her. She had more than enough trouble already with recovering Satori. At least that one responded to medication predictably and could be brought to sleep when the pain in her newly transplanted third eye became unbearable.

And Wriggle was only getting worse, even more delusional, and in addition her new almost immobile lifestyle caused her to start to gain weight, her face and hands becoming slightly swollen.

They reached a small room in other part of the basement. It was bare, the massive wooden chair dominating the center. Next to it was a small metal box with dials and indicators on the front plate, series of wires sticking from it.

Eirin pushed Wriggle into the room and locked the heavy metal door behind her. She then forced Wriggle into the chair and unfastened her straightjacket, tying the sleeves to the elbow supports. She used the leather straps to fasten Wriggle's legs and started connecting the wires to her head and neck. The bug youkai observed her actions with a detached smirk.

Eirin snapped the tumbler on the wired machine up and it started, producing a low hum. She waited for a little lamp to light.

"Wriggle, this is going to hurt, but I am not torturing you. It is a medical procedure called electroconvulsive therapy. You will fill better after it and forget about this imaginary…" Eirin stumbled at the name, it slipped from her mind's grasp. "…whatever her name is."

"Her name is Yuuka," Wriggle said, glaring. "And I will never for—"

Eirin winced and pushed the button on the machine. Wriggle screamed, thrashing in the restraints, the electricity tearing through her. Her mouth foamed, and she went limp, head hanging low, saliva dripping down.

"I will… never forget…"

Eirin flipped a few tumblers up and the pitch of the machine went higher. Wriggle raised her head, and her face formed a crooked smile.

"I made a new poem about her, want to hear? It goes like this:

_Destroyed and forgotten by humans_

_Her spirit lives on in me_

_She returns, in gossip and rumors_

_Forever with us she will be_

_... _

_Her power will smite the heathens_

_And no one will be to blame_

_The light thunders down from heavens_

_Yuuka Kazami her naAAghA…_

Her recital turned to scream when Eirin pushed the button again.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"Ooh, another love letter!" Marisa exclaimed with genuine enthusiasm. She was receiving them every day in the mornings, and with this one there was finally enough of them to start making a card house.

She picked up the envelope, blue this time, and opened it up. Oddly enough, this one was written upside down. She turned it with a smile.

"Wait, wait, I know how it will go, ze~," she said, closing her eyes. "Dear Marisa, your purity blinds me. I am basking in it, and see the light. No, I will not say who I am, I'll write you a poem instead. Your secret admirer."

She opened her eyes and read the letter.

_Dear Marisa,_

_Tonight, something wonderful happened. Long I waited, but now I have that one final push, one final sign I needed to confess. I feel you are probably tired of my letters, so this is going to be the last one. I know tomorrow is a big day as we are supposed to destroy the temple…_

"Hmm…" Marisa put the letter down and scratched her head. "So it is really one from the GAPS, and a girl. Holy border, I hope it is not Reimu, it will be… awkward. No, scratch that, it will be awkward in any case."

She resumed reading. _"…but I can't wait any longer. I will confess, and we will join one another in the eternity of bliss. Oh, how I long for that single beautiful moment. And for you, one last poem, one last reveal of my soul:_

_Desire burns, and so I burn with it_

_I soar high, and now I have wings_

_To fall towards hellfire blazing pit_

_And see forever what damnation brings_

_... _

_But you will save me, that is my belief_

_Together we will break away the chains_

_One final breath, a falling autumn leaf_

_Into the light, to where oblivion reigns_

_Your secret admirer._

"Creepy, ze~" Marisa summarized. She then tossed the letter to the other ones and resumed her day, adjusting her schedule so she would meet with Reimu first.

The card house of letters would have to wait.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"And this time you gave me less than a day to shake away the results of my horrible psychological trauma. Are you even a real doctor?" Wriggle sadistically asked.

Eirin remained silent, pushing her restrained patient in front of her. Something was going on with Wriggle's body, it became swollen all over, but Eirin didn't have time anymore for extensive diagnostics. The energy reserves of the mansion have fallen close to critical level, one more day and the spell keeping the temperature in the morgue would fail. The situation with Wriggle had to be resolved tonight.

The only good news was that Satori's transplanted eye was accepted by her body. Despite the cycle breaker affliction, her natural youkai regenerative abilities finally kicked in. The inflammation was nearly gone, and she regained most of her sight, although she now saw everything through a red haze. A tiny beacon of light in despair of the recent weeks.

"Ah, the torture chamber again," Wriggle said. "Repetition makes it funny."

Eirin clenched her teeth and bolted the metal door behind them. The procedure of restraining repeated, and Wriggle's head was firmly fixed now too. The chair creaked strangely for some reason, something that never happened before.

Wriggle curiously examined a metal table with instruments beside her. "Are we doing some roof repairs tonight?"

"It is a medical procedure," Eirin said hollowly. "It is called lobotomy. I am going to cut some connections in your brain, and you will feel much better after that."

"You are about to jam a nail into the head of a helpless little girl. Careful, you are very close to becoming a villain, don't slip," Wriggle said with the same detached mix of humor and sadism.

"I am not a villain," Eirin said as flatly as before. "It is to make you feel better."

"And what if I don't want to feel better?"

"You don't have a choice in the matter," Eirin said and picked up a long gleaming nail from the anesthetic fluid it was submerged in. "And neither do I."

"Don't you? You just have to let me go. I am helpless victim tortured in the basement, and you are a sadistic corrupted villain, Eirin. You are Hatate and I am Aya."

Eirin didn't say anything, carefully determining the spot in Wriggle's eye socket where the nail would have to be inserted and measuring an angle at which it would have slide in. Wriggle kept talking, with the same detached smile.

"You know, at school, before Hatate let me out she told me everything. About her own corruption, about Aya and Momiji, about her battle with Sanae and Nitori, about the temple… everything. History goes in spirals and repeats itself, only not perfectly. With little twists."

Eirin decided on the angle and picked up the hammer. If the procedure fails, she will have to kill Wriggle, and there was no other choice. It had to end tonight.

She leveled the nail with the spot and drew her arm back.

"Little, insignificant twists," Wriggle said with a warm smile and vomited a stream of bugs into Eirin's face.

It felt like a blast of concentrated acid, and Eirin screamed, dropping the instruments and trying to claw the bugs out of her eyes. In front of her, the chair crumpled, and tiny pale termites swarmed out from the torn wood to the remaining restraints.

Bugs, innumerable bugs crawled into the room from the smallest cracks between stone blocks. All of them were black, and most of them carried a single wedged symbol on the back.

Wriggle vomited again, adding even more bugs to the swarm. Her body deflated to her usual size and she brushed away the remaining scraps of leather bindings. The bugs crawled all over Eirin as she thrashed on the floor, trying to get away.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Wriggle asked, picking up one of the medical nails. "How versatile the bugs are. They are everywhere, in the walls, under the floorboards. They can carry inscriptions on them, and a single bug can host a whole intact cycle breaker. And with the right combination of symbols, they can sap away magical energy. Even the energy of an immortal like you."

One of the bugs in the swarm burst, and red coiling inscriptions crawled over Eirin's body. Wriggle snapped her fingers, and the bugs dispersed, leaving the whimpering medic on the floor.

Wriggle squatted to her.

"Where is your power, Eirin? Where is your beautiful danmaku, unchained, or some other nonsense like that? Where is your immortality?"

She gestured around. "It is here, in this room, only spread around a million skittering rune-inscribed bugs. The right combination of symbols I composed in my small cushioned prison, sending messengers to the temple and back. To kill an immortal is like poetry, it requires time, skill, talent, intellect. And everything I lacked, Pazuzu was all too happy to supply."

Wriggle kicked Eirin in the face, producing another howl of pain, the howl that didn't escape out of the room, just like no other screams did. She then reached down and pulled Eirin's ruined face up.

"Say something, Eirin. I want to hear what you think about all this."

In response, Eirin weakly gurgled. Wriggle released her head and stood up.

"I know what you think, that I am insane and stupid, that I will never escape the mansion. I will, easily, because I have outside help. Everything is timed perfectly and planned perfectly. All part of Pazuzu's vision of perfection. All part of my wish. All part of Yuuka's wish."

Wriggle spread her arms, and the bugs in the room skittered to her, surrounding her body with a crawling shell of moving black armor. She reached down and picked up the nail and the hammer.

"There are no villains or heroes, Eirin. There are only those who succeed and those who fail. And to succeed, you have to know exactly what you are doing. And right now, I am going to perform lobotomy on you. Guess how it will go."

Eirin tried to crawl away, and Wriggle pinned her head and body down with a mass of bugs. She leveled the nail with one of Eirin's destroyed eyes and thoughtfully started to choose an angle, raising the hammer up. Eirin tried to say something, but Wriggle closed her mouth with another swarm of bugs.

"You know what I hated the most about you? You never let me finish my poems, always interrupted and never shut up. Well, this time I'll tell you the whole thing, and guess what, it's about you, me, Gensokyo, Yuuka, everything. Here it is:

_Fall_

_Into darkness_

_Shivering darkness_

_Into madness_

_Crawl_

_Into despair_

_Everything fails_

_Bitter sadness_

_Howl_

_To the ceiling_

_Crumbling building_

_Into endless_

_Void_

_Between worlds_

_Between words_

_Beyond gods_

_Pazuzu_

_Pazuzu_

_Pazuzu_

And with every recital of the god's name, Wriggle brought the hammer down.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	14. Romance

**Shard 14: Romance**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Eientei was silent. No alarms, no cries of panic, just a sound of skittering insects as Wriggle moved towards the morgue. Her form was fluid, undulating in and out as bugs rearranged themselves. The light coming from the wedged runes surrounded Wriggle with a sickly red glow.

The lights were out, and the door to the morgue was slightly open. From within, a quiet rustling could be heard as covers were being removed from the bodies. Wriggle walked in, and the dark figure messing with the covers bolted upright, taking an involuntary step back right after that. It, or rather she was draped in black head to toe, leaving only eyes open.

There was a pause, and Wriggle looked around. The spells supporting the cold inside the room have failed, and ice crust on the bodies lining the walls started to melt. Wriggle turned back to the tense figure in black.

"What are you afraid of? Me? And what's with using curtains for disguise, couldn't find anything else?"

"I am not afraid," the draped girl spoke, her voice heavily distorted by magic. "I just don't like bugs, that's all. And as for curtains, I don't need to look sinister, just concealed."

"I never got your obsession with concealing your identity," Wriggle scoffed and moved past the figure to the back of the morgue. She knelt to one of the bodies.

"When will you get them up?" she asked, brushing ice from the face of the corpse, formerly an old villager.

"They are too stiff, I'll have to warm them first or the joints will shatter."

"Well hurry up, you did a good job with alarms but your window of opportunity is shrinking," Wriggle said, standing up. The figure chuckled.

"Ehe, you said "window of opportunity." Not that much of Wriggle left inside the mass of inscribed bugs, is it?"

"I absorbed most of Eirin's power, got a bit of vocabulary on the way," Wriggle said dryly. "The way I speak does not define who I am. We are wasting time, where is Yuuka?"

The mysterious figure pointed to a small metal box in the corner. "High-security safe. I disabled the alarms and managed to pick the lock, but the lid is frozen shut. I warmed it up with a spell, but it may still take a few minutes."

She moved to another body and pulled the sheet away. The bugs covering Wriggle's face formed into a scowl.

"Cover her up and leave her here. I won't allow Mystia to be desecrated," she said, and the figure sighed, covering the body back up.

"Should I leave Rumia too?"

"They already desecrated her when they experimented, so she goes," Wriggle ordered and went for the box. The lid was intricate, and there was no handle, so Wriggle's hand slipped a few times before she managed to open it.

"Yuuka…" she whispered, and the draped figure sighed again, checking the elbow joint on one of the corpses.

"Sigh all you like," Wriggle said coldly. "Disapprove. Laugh. I love what she was, not the torn bloody scraps of cloth and a broken umbrella that she is now."

"Sorry, I just don't get it," the figure said, and the elbow joint bent with a crack. "You had no reason to love her, you two had nothing in common except green hair. Bugs don't pollinate flowers. I can understand my love for Marisa, but you…"

"I don't care if it is illogical," Wriggle said and pulled the frozen broken umbrella out of the box. "And you will kill Marisa today and bring her spell furnace and the corpses to the temple by sundown, despite your love."

"No," the figure said. "I will kill her because of my love."

Wriggle picked up the remains of Yuuka's dress. "Whatever, I don't care. And hurry up, if you fail, the plan will be delayed again like it was with Hatate."

"I will not fail," the girl in black said, and Wriggle slowly skittered out, holding the remains of Yuuka gingerly in her arms.

And the alarm sounded only three hours later, at dawn.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The Hakurei shrine in the morning. A rundown, nearly crumbling building, but homely nevertheless. The courtyard was covered in a thin carpet of bright yellow leaves, and Reimu and Marisa were sitting on the main terrace, quietly having tea.

The silence was strained, and the conversation didn't flow, it failed to even start properly. Marisa was constantly fidgeting, and a few times she opened her mouth but quickly closed it, shaking her head. Reimu observed it all with relative calm and slightly growing annoyance.

Finally, Marisa decided. She inhaled deeply and sat very still.

"Reimu," she said evenly. "Will you have sex with me?"

Reimu slowly gulped down the tea and didn't respond. She then put a finger to her chin and released a thoughtful "Hmm…"

"No! NO!" Marisa shouted, jumping up. "You are not supposed to react like this! You are supposed to do a spit-take, and than stare at me, your eyes round like bagels, ze~! You are not supposed to seriously consider it!"

Reimu sighed and looked up. "Marisa, maybe you didn't notice, but I'm on the edge, been on the edge for weeks now. Right now, if I'd have to pay such a price to destroy the last of the cycle breakers and bring everyone back to life, I'd… still say no, of course, but it would be seriously tempting."

Marisa crashed back on the cushion, pouting. "You are no fun, Reims."

"Reims always has been no fun, and thanks to it Gensokyo is still largely intact, despite scarlet mists and subterranean reactors," Reimu said. "And why the topic all of a sudden?"

"Well…" Marisa paused. "One from the GAPS sent me all these love letters, poetry and mushy stuff. It's probably a joke, but she said she was going to confess today. So…"

"So you came to me for sagacious advice," Reimu summarized. "And for help to determine who it is. Well, let's find out. Suika!"

"Bluuh?"

The incoherent response came from inside the shrine, and the top half of Suika appeared into view, the oni having crawled from one of the inner rooms. Her long blond hair got in her face and she pushed it behind the horns. "Whazzup?"

"Suika, why are you drunk at eight in the morning?" Reimu demanded. It took a while for the question to set in.

"'Cause, 'morrow we blast the temple, and…" Suika hicced "… and gotta be sober the whole day."

"Right," Reimu said and tiredly rubbed her face. "Anyway, the question. Suika, who loves Marisa?"

A pause, and Suika's eyebrows met. She went cross-eyed, then hicced again. "Alice."

"See? It's Alice," Reimu said and waved, dismissing Suika. The oni crawled back into the room.

"Ah, how scientific," Marisa said. "You used the only youkai in Gensokyo that can detect love to deduce who my mysterious suitor is. Oh wait, you didn't, because she can't, she's just drunk like a sow and says stupid things."

"I… 'eard that!"

Reimu sighed. "Marisa, you know Suika is right. I don't love you because we've both known each other since we were five, Nitori loves gears, not people, Reisen watched over you in the hospital, and in case you don't know, it's a huge turn-off to see someone naked with tubes sticking out of bloodied stomach…"

Marisa blinked. Then she blinked again.

"…Patchouli is an ancient inhuman monster incapable of love, Youmu is undead and Suika just said she doesn't love you. It's Alice. And stop calling us GAPS, it is stupid."

Reimu finished her tea. Marisa kept staring at her.

"Wow, Reims, you are seriously really on edge. Lighten up, will you?"

Reimu glared at her. "Lighten up? When the temple crumbles to rubble, when I'll have to chase the Mischievous Trio again for stealing something from my kitchen, when Mystia sings again, when I have another epic, safe and fun blast-out with Utsuho… shall I continue?"

Marisa didn't answer, looking lost. Reimu stood up.

"Marisa, I can't tell you how to live your life, and I don't know what you feel about Alice, but please, if she presses you for it today, for all that is holy, say yes. She is in charge of the explosives for the temple, and if there is something worse than a heartbroken youkai witch, it is a heartbroken youkai witch with lots of explosives."

Marisa stood up too, and her eyes narrowed. "So, this is how it's going to be, huh? You don't care about my feelings, just your goals. Conveniences. You are ready to set me up with anyone if it suits your needs, huh?"

Reimu stepped back, giving Marisa a narrow stare of her own. "It is for Gensokyo, not me."

"I'd tell you what you can do with your Gensokyo and where you should stick it, but I think you know very well yourself. I'll see you at the blast site tomorrow, Hakurei," Marisa said, almost literally spitting the last word. She turned and stomped away.

Reimu remained standing, looking emptily at an unfinished cup of tea Marisa left behind. Why was she so angry anyway? She just suggested…

Reimu picked up the cups and went to the kitchen. When she washed the second cup, it cracked in her hands.

And ten minutes later, a messenger came from Eientei.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Marisa flew, and she didn't know where. She went up a bit higher and hoped the cold wind currents would clear her head. They didn't.

Suddenly, it all stopped being a silly joke. What if Alice really confesses today? She would probably dress up like to a parade, in that piercing blue satin dress she wore only once, at the party celebrating the end of Imperishable Night. And would probably give her a doll as an offering, and then just stare, with those green eyes of hers, expecting an answer…

And then what? They kiss? Then travel together, only two of them, go on picnics, do weird things, then really weird things, exploring their bodies…

Marisa did her best to push these thoughts away, as the phrase "exploring bodies" vividly brought to her mind's eye an image of very serious and sleepy Patchouli leaning in with a scalpel over the headless Rumia.

But in any case, then what? They adopt children? Or maybe try to raise some minor youkai as their child? A fairy? A youkai fish? A youkai tree?

"AAugh!" Marisa shouted, trying to push out of her head an image of her and Alice kissing together under Saigyou Ayakashi, the evil youkai cherry tree staring down at them and being simultaneously their baby.

"I am not ready for this!" Marisa shouted to the sky. "Not ready, ze~!"

Then what? She rejects? She says no, and Alice hangs her head and goes to the back of the house without saying anything? Then she returns, a kitchen knife in her hand, and slashes her throat in front of Marisa. Or maybe stabs her. Or both. Oh wait, she has explosives, so she blows them both, an explosion that would be heard in all corners of Gensokyo…

Or would she suck it up? Cry, or maybe don't even cry, just stop attending parties and sink away into her lonely world with dolls and… dolls, mostly.

Marisa grabbed her head, destroying the images of dirty and emaciated Alice in the basement, carving "Marisa" with a knife on her forearm, mutilated doll parts around.

"Um… good morning," a voice suddenly came from the side, and Marisa nearly fell off her broom. She quickly grabbed a handle and did a barrel roll to the side. She then checked who it was.

"Nitori! What did I tell you about sneaking up on people?" Marisa shouted, and Nitori blinked.

"Um… nothing? I would remember, I guess…"

"Don't. Sneak up. On people," Marisa hammered. "My heart nearly exploded, ze~! And what are you doing here… wherever we are, in mid air. Shouldn't you prepare for temple blast?"

Nitori flew a bit closer, and Marisa saw the kappa was blushing. "Actually… I was looking for you. I wanted to show you something really, really interesting."

She flew even closer, and Marisa noticed a strange, almost manic glint in Nitori's eyes. Marisa moved a bit to the side and gulped. Usually, it was Nitori who acted shy and reserved, but now it was Marisa's turn to push out words with difficulty and inch away.

"Really? Well… oh wait, look at the time, gotta go!"

"Marisa, it's morning. It will take half an hour at most, and I waited for so long to show you this! I finished it only last night!"

"Um… Sure, last night… ehehe…"

Nitori gained on her, involuntary or on purpose maneuvering them in the direction of her house.

"Oh look, it's my river already! It's close to my house, come on!"

Nitori suddenly shifted close to Marisa and did something completely uncharacteristic for her – she grabbed Marisa's arm, pulling her down and forward. In the distance, a small water fairy waved to them.

Marisa was being helplessly dragged, feeling a lot like a lamb that was being taken to the Nitori's house. It was surreal, assertive and confident Nitori dragging her somewhere. With a feeling of creeping dread Marisa realized that it was Nitori all along. Sending her letters, looking up to her as an example…

Marisa's eyes went wide. Nitori is going to confess, and she would have to refuse. She could not imagine herself with her, the feeling just wasn't there. Sure, Nitori was dependable, and pure, and nice… and that's it, nothing else.

They reached the house, and Nitori was nearly glowing by that point. She threw the door open, and Marisa saw a huge canvas-covered contraption in the middle of the living room. Nitori released her arm and walked to the machine.

"Ta-da!" she announced, turning on her heel, her boot making a silly squeak. "Behold, my latest project and my greatest experiment!"

She drew the canvas down and Marisa beheld a huge upright boiler with tubes leading to an enormous metal box with dials. The boiler had a door and a small round window paned with thick glass.

The pause dragged and turned to silence. Marisa stood, confused, and Nitori smiled. The boiler stoically remained a boiler.

"It's an infrasound subconscious separator and amplifier!" Nitori declared, her enthusiasm almost gushing out of her, a bright smile on her face.

"O…kay," Marisa carefully said and took a step back. "And… sorry to offend you but… what does it do?"

"It uses infrasound in combination with psychedelic drugs pumped into the chamber to separate the consciousness from the body, of course! And then sends it into a timestream! It's a time machine!"

Marisa tried to absorb the last phrase that was said, she tried very hard, but it didn't work. What was said was blasphemy. It did not belong to reality, it was… stupid?

"No," Marisa said. Nitori's smile faded a bit.

"No?"

"Not in Gensokyo," Marisa said. "It is impossible. Time travel is impossible."

Now, Nitori looked a bit hurt. "But why? Everyone does it! Keine manipulates history, Remilia can change fate, Kaguya manipulates eternity… how am I worse than them?"

Marisa sighed. "Nitori, not with drugs. You can't change fate with formulas and drugs. This is stupid."

"No," Nitori said, looking grim now. "It is not stupid, and I am not worse than them. I built it all by myself, starting from scratch when Ran destroyed everything. And I thought that you, of all people, would support me. I thought you'd be happy for me and go with me and save everyone."

She walked to a side panel of the control box and opened it. There were fuses, and coolant tubes, and metal encased crystals, and in the middle there was an octagonal niche. Nitori turned and pointed on it.

"All I need is power, only power to succeed. Your hakkero, your spell furnace… it holds so much power in it. Plug it in and come with me. We will go into the past and change the present, together. And no one will die."

Marisa took another step back and whipped her spell furnace out, pointing it at Nitori. The light was born inside, and kappa's eyes went wide.

"H…hey, what are you—"

"You want it, this power? Then come and get it, but you'll have to kill me first. Reimu was right, you care only about machines, and they drove you insane."

Nitori's lower lip trembled. She couldn't take her eyes away from the light in the center of the octagon. She stumbled back, and bumped into the fuse box behind her. Tears formed in her eyes.

"Ma…Marisa, please, I only wanted to—"

"Shut up. I was stabbed, and spent three weeks in the hospital, slipping in and out of consciousness, receiving food through tubes, dealing with side effects of the painkillers… you can't undo that with a boiler and a box. You can't bring Cirno, Aya, Utsuho back with a boiler and a box. Now step aside, and I will destroy it so you can finally do something useful."

Nitori didn't move. She kept crying, and slowly slid down, her back to the fuse box. She sobbed, and shuddered, and Marisa's resolve drained. Her hand holding the furnace trembled and the energy shut off.

"Uh… look, Nitori—"

"Go away!" Nitori screamed. "I hate you! You care more about your stupid furnace than me! Go away and die! Die!"

She didn't stand up or do anything hostile, but her words wounded Marisa deeper than a spell card blast would. She stumbled back, and went through the doorway. Nitori kept crying and Marisa quietly closed the door.

Well, Marisa bitterly thought, so far this day was just awesome. In a span of two hours, she managed to not only have a fight with Reimu, but utterly break Nitori's spirit as well. Just great. The temple demolition tomorrow will surely be surrounded by aura of friendship, care and love.

"Okay," Marisa said aloud. "I am not going to run away and pretend everything is fine. Let me in, I'll say I'm sorry and we will do your experiment."

She turned the handle on the door, but it clicked. Locked.

"Oh, come on, Nitori…"

The house went alive with whirring of mechanisms. Metal curtains blocked the windows, and a thick metal plate slid down from the top of the door-case so fast Marisa barely managed to pull her hand back before she lost her fingers. A few bricks slipped in, revealing very nasty-looking nozzles inside.

"Okay, I get it," Marisa carefully said, taking a step back. "You need some time to yourself, I understand. I'll come back later, I am very interested in this infrasound thingamajig, no, really."

The nozzles followed her, and she mounted her broom. "Okay, bye, see you later. Good luck with your experiments, ze~."

She took off and quickly gained altitude. That's it, she decided, that's enough for today. She won't mess up things any further if she'll be alone.

Marisa headed towards home.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Marisa exclaimed.

Alice was in the living room of her house, unrolling and spreading blueprints over the table, a few dolls helping her to hold the corners. She raised her head and looked at Marisa. "Hello," she said.

"Yes, yes, hello," Marisa said, not moving away from the door. "Alice, what are you doing in my house?"

"I needed your advice on explosion placement," Alice said simply. She looked normal too, in her usual dress and with her usual accompanying dolls.

"At the last day before placement?" Marisa asked, not buying any of it. She remembered locking the door on the way out, and Alice never visited like this, without first sending a letter.

"At the last day," Alice responded. "Would you kindly help me with this corner? There turned out to be very prominent structural aberrations on the third floor."

Marisa pondered her options. She could either aggressively press Alice for answers, causing yet another misunderstanding, earning another enemy and probably making the puppeteer cry or…

Well, there were really no options. Marisa shrugged, sighed, and went to hold a corner of a blueprint. Alice moved, arranging the dolls in a different pattern.

"So," she said. "How is life? Does the stomach ache bother you?"

"At times," Marisa evasively answered. Up close, there did turn out to be something wrong about Alice, she was way too tense, like suppressing something with all her willpower. Marisa decided to stay alert.

"I heard there was trouble at Eientei this morning," Alice said in the same voice, made plain with what looked like extreme inner effort. "Know anything about it?"

They finally set the blueprint properly, and Alice spread dolls around the table.

"Can't say I have," Marisa responded. One of the dolls was holding a tiny pointer in her arms, and Alice moved the doll to the center of the blueprint.

"Well, look here," Alice said, and the doll pointed to a spot at the center of the floor plan. "It is an original ritual chamber, where Nitori claimed the blood sphere exploded. And if we move here…"

The doll moved diagonally to the side of the table and a bit closer to Marisa.

"Look, shouldn't you be discussing this with Nitori? I'm all about explosions, but in different vein, ze~," Marisa said, keeping a close eye on the doll. Alice shrugged.

"You live closer, that's it. And besides, I only need to figure out if I should spread explosives to these three chambers or keep them in one."

The doll circled a spot at the blueprint with a pointer and Marisa blinked. She felt slightly lightheaded, and snapped back at Alice. Something was definitely not right in here, she just couldn't put her finger on it.

"Marisa, you are not even looking," Alice said, and the doll tapped the pointer again. The tap resounded in Marisa's ears like a stomp of a giant.

"Alice…" Marisa started, and the next moment her legs buckled. She tried to grab the edge of the table as she fell, and dragged the blueprints with her.

"I filled the house with odorless and tasteless knockout gas," Alice said, stepping closer. Marisa's vision was fading, but she now saw what exactly was wrong with Alice – she wasn't breathing, holding the air recirculation spell with all her willpower, and spell seals that allowed her to talk were glowing slightly at the back of her throat.

"I will explain everything before killing you," Alice said in the same flat, spell-modulated voice.

"How very considerate of you," Marisa wanted to say, but only managed to move her lips a little before everything faded to black.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Marisa regained her senses slowly, and the world returned to her in strange disjointed flashes of color and odd sounds. Whatever Alice used to knock out her with, it was not designed to have pleasant aftereffects. Her mouth felt bitter, and when she tried to open her eyes, it felt like sand was poured in them.

She was sitting, tied tightly to a metal chair, like the ones used in the hospital wing of Eientei. She was bound with enchanted rope, very professionally, and a few restraining glyphs were circling her.

Marisa slowly looked around. She was in the basement, and not in her own basement. Around her bags and crates with explosives were stacked, warning signs and wires all around. In front of her, on a particularly large crate, the partially melted idol of Pazuzu stood, greeting her with the right clawed paw. The spell furnace and her hat were next to it.

"Oh great," Marisa croaked. "And I was wondering if Alice went crazy on her own account or not."

"I am not crazy," Alice spoke from behind her. There was a sound of shuffling, and Alice appeared before Marisa, dragging a small crate with her. "I am in love."

"With Pazuzu?" Marisa deadpanned.

"Yes, I found in my heart a new, deeply rooted desire for inanimate objects," Alice responded dryly. "After all, it's just one step away from the dolls. This idol is so… manly."

"He was before burning up, now he is just generic," Marisa said. The whole situation would look absolutely ridiculous if not for the amount of explosives around.

"Still huggable, though," Aliced said, and a thin smile touched her lips. "I am so glad you are taking it so well, I thought you would shout and cry…"

"And I thought love confessions are great heartwarming moments," Marisa said with a smile of her own. "And both parties are able to run away if anything goes wrong."

Alice's face darkened. "You must understand, Marisa. I do it because I love you."

"No, no, no," Marisa said and shook her head as much as her restraints allowed. "Put more feeling into it. Blush. Be out of breath. Marisa… I… I love you! This is how it should go, ze~."

Alice's face formed a frown and she went behind Marisa again, moving something heavy there. This went on for a while, the silence broken by scrapes and clicks. Marisa's head cleared almost completely from the haze the knockout gas induced on her. Where did Alice even got this thing, only Eirin stockpiled something like that...

"So…" Marisa started. "How is life? How are dolls? How is spell research?"

Alice appeared in view again, carrying a small black box in her hands, the surface of the box covered in tumblers and Marisa realized what it was, the main detonator control. Suddenly, breathing became a problem.

"Hey, hey, Alice, talk to me. Tell me what's wrong, we'll figure it out together, I promise," Marisa said quickly. Alice sighed and started switching up tumblers. The crates around responded with beeping.

"Nothing is wrong," Alice said, averting her eyes. "Except I love you, and I don't want you to die."

"Okay, okay," Marisa agreed despite the last sentence making absolutely no sense. "You don't want me to die, great, but explosives kill people. Look, I—"

"I am not insane," Alice said quietly. "And you know what I mean, I don't want you to die while affected by a cycle breaker, or in the gap. Pazuzu can not be stopped, Marisa, and something horrible will happen if you continue to fight, and you _will_ continue to fight. I will kill you and myself, destroy the idol and it will stall his plans for a while. So great is the power of my love to you that I am willing to betray him. I wanted you to know this."

She fell silent, switching up the tumblers. One of the crates failed to beep, and she went to it. Marisa tried to take in all that was said.

"Okay," Marisa said carefully. "This is perfectly logical, in a special, crazy way. You want me to have an afterlife, okay. I can understand, but this is wrong."

"How so?"

"Well… it's like in a war, you see? Many fight and many die, but people still fight on. What you are about to do is shooting yourself in a foot to not fight. It's not right."

"Why?" Alice asked, and the crate she worked on beeped. "And besides, I am not shooting myself in the foot, I am shooting you, because I love you. And I, myself, am infected by the cycle breaker."

"Damn it, Alice, listen to yourself!" Marisa snapped. "You are about to throw away all you worked for, all your long life, all your achievements because of what? Because of fear of some "great" and "unstoppable" Pazuzu? He is an ugly asshole with wings, are you so afraid of that?"

Alice quietly chuckled, switching the tumblers on. The sound of beeping filled the room.

"And now you are mad, and shouting," she said quietly. "It will soon be over, and it won't even hurt. Please, Marisa, don't get mad…"

"I'll be mad all I like! I'll shout all I like! Because I love you too, you stupid, insane youkai witch! I love you…"

Marisa broke into tears, and the lump in her throat choked her. In the end, she did love Alice, that always serious expression, not cold like Patcouli, just calm and always ready to break into smile. She loved when they spent evenings together, bickering over some spell research, and when Alice did shows with dolls for her, and when she got mad when Marisa stole some insignificant trinkets from her…

Beeping all around. Alice slowly leaned in, and they kissed, a kiss that should have lasted forever.

Then Alice pressed the button on the main detonator control. It went in with a dry click, like a crushed insect.

The beeping continued, and Alice broke away from the kiss, looking at the detonator in surprise. She pressed the button again, and it again clicked with a crunch. She switched a few tumblers up and down and clicked again. Nothing.

"What's that?" a sadistic voice came from the side. "A bug in your system?"

There was a flash of darkness, and a long scaled tendril slammed into Alice from the side, coiling around her. No, those weren't scales, those were bugs, black rune-inscribed bugs.

The bug-covered tentacle dragged Alice somewhere out of view, through the beeping crates. Some of the bugs detached from the mass and landed on the glyphs restraining Marisa, reinforcing their energy. She struggled and shouted into darkness around.

Something appeared in her view, something looking like a vaguely humanoid shaped mound of insects. It was dragging a very pale and weakly struggling Alice with it. It dropped her under the altar, then turned to Marisa. It had a face, an armored face made of bugs.

"The great and mighty Pazuzu does not appreciate when he is mocked or called names," the mass of bugs said and threw forward an arm, or rather, an upper amorphous appendage. "But more importantly, he does not appreciate betrayal."

At the end of the tentacle energy crackled, and the cycle breaker was born, lunging forward and coiling around Marisa.

"No! Leave her alone!" Alice shouted, her shout weak and strained. The black monster turned to her.

"Pazuzu granted your wish, Alice. You wished for her to love you, and she loved you. How dare you repay with betrayal?"

Marisa looked at Alice and their eyes met. "You… wished upon the idol so I would love you?" Marisa asked, a completely redundant question. Alice did not respond, but her eyes said it all.

The mass of bugs released a laugh. "Ah, love. So much power and so much weakness in it, so much purity and so much corruption. What are we without love? What are we without this beautiful, horrible feeling?"

Not expecting the answer, the creature extended the appendage, swiping the idol and spell furnace off the pedestal. It then turned to Alice again and pointed at her.

"You pathetic thing, I never doubted for one moment you would betray me. Always so weak, so emotional and on top of it all, blind. I followed you for good half of a day now, and you failed to notice even the obvious signs of bug infestation. Stupid, unworthy—"

"Hey!" Marisa shouted. "Stop it. We are both helpless, so you can either kill us or let us go. A villain that gloats over the helpless is nothing but a weak, insecure bully."

The mass shuddered, turning to her. Its face formed a vicious scowl. "Weak? I have my own power, the power of Pazuzu, Eirin, and soon, Alice. I have a goal, a vision, a dream. How dare you call me weak?"

Marisa turned back to Alice and shook her head. "Alice, remember I called you crazy? I take it back. You are a bastion of mental stability compared to this guy… thing, I can't tell."

The creature roared and extended its appendage to Marisa. Its end trembled.

"What? You can't even kill a helpless girl that didn't do anything to you personally? What kind of a monstrous villain are you?"

The face of the mass… it almost looked pitiful for a second. Just for a second it showed regret, and doubt, and sadness…

And then the bugs shifted, and the expression turned to a manic, vicious grin.

"I am Wriggle Nightbug," the mass said. "And what you said about me, it hurt so much. It was so… heartless of you."

At the end of bug-covered tentacle a beating heart appeared in a flash of smoke. The bugs closed on it like claws, crushing it.

Marisa froze in shock, then looked down. She didn't feel anything different, and she looked back at the creature, then at Alice. Alice looked somewhere to the side, to an uninteresting spot on a wall, and a streak of blood came down from her nose.

"Aw shit, messed up the identifier symbols. Hold on, I got it," Wriggle said and released a short insane chuckle. "That's what Hatate said that time, I remember it word for word. And now I know she did it on purpose, and never messed up anything."

"You… killed Alice…" Marisa numbly said. "You…"

"I am a monster," Wriggle said, opening her bug-covered hand again "An instrument to fulfilling Yuuka's wish, just like you are about to become, Marisa Kirisame. It will not hurt."

Smoke flashed in her hand, and the second heart joined the first.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	15. Science

**Shard 15: Sci-Fi**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Satori woke up, and the world returned to her in the haze of her new red vision. She moved out of the medical wing the day before yesterday and was now sharing a normal guest room with Rin.

It was late, and it was strange. Normally, a minor rabbit fairy woke her up early so she could attend the morning tests and exercises. As of late, Eirin looked troubled by something, and she shifted part of her duties to Reisen. Satori firmly refused to as much as be in the same room with Tewi, despite all the apologies and the fact that the ancient earth rabbit turned out to be much less psychotic than their first meeting indicated.

Satori's vision returned, albeit being blurry, red and lacking depth perception. It was normal vision, and her mind reading abilities didn't return. Maybe they would in time, but for now, Satori was thankful she could see where the bathroom was.

Rin was sleeping on the carpet, curled up in her cat form, and Satori decided to not disturb her. She finished her morning preparations quickly and put a purple blindfold over the empty eye sockets. In time, when the scars would heal she would not need it, appearing to have her eyes just shut all the time but for now she used it, as she could turn her third eye to see her face and it didn't look pretty.

Leaving sleeping Rin behind she left the room and made her way towards the kitchens. Normally, food was distributed from there, as all the residents of the mansion rarely gathered together to share meals, and someone in charge could be usually found there.

The mansion was unusually silent, and the corridors were completely empty. Satori walked past the usual fairy guard posts, and they were empty too. The morning sun shone brightly, so there was no reason to be scared, but Satori could not shake the feeling she was walking the vast expanses of a sun-lit crypt.

Satori reached the kitchen, and it was likewise empty, save for a single occupant. It was a ghostly woman in rich pink funeral gown, cloth triangle on her hat. She was surrounded by pink semi-transparent fluttering butterflies and was quite nonchalantly chomping on a large chunk of smoked ham.

The ghostly woman raised her eyes from the ham and leveled her gaze with Satori's face. She made a confused blink and fixed on Satori's third eye. She smiled.

"Hi! My name is Yuyuko, I'm the princess of Netherworld," she said and waved her ham. "And you are Satori, mistress of Hell, right?"

"More like a custodian," Satori responded. She already didn't like the woman's attitude. "Do you know where everyone is?"

Yuyuko bit into the meat before responding. "Fure," she said, mouth full. "At the bafement, ftaring dumfly at fe corpfe of Eirin." Yuyuko gulped. "Reimu and Youmu are there too, she dragged me here as if I can do anything about this cycle breaker business. Meh."

Satori tried to process everything that was just said. When delivered in such a tone, with mouthful of food, it failed to sound scary. It even failed to sound real. Eirin – dead? What?

"What?" Satori pushed out.

"What what? I said a lot of things, could you clarify?" Yuyuko asked, having almost finished the ham.

"How is she… dead? And how can you be so… cruel about it?"

Yuyuko shrugged. "I'm not cruel, I just don't get all this despair and angst. People, youkai, immortals, even gods – everything dies eventually. It's just a transition to another state of existence, that's all."

She wiped her grease-covered fingers over her dress. "Take Utsuho Reiuji for example. Oh no, how tragic, death claimed her. Oh no, how tragic, infected by cycle breaker, soul rots away. And yet…"

She floated over the kitchen counter and nearly stuck her finger into Satori's third transplanted eye. "… she still lives, in you. And Eirin will live, in Tewi, Reisen and Kaguya, in whole Eientei and memories of Gensokyo. Kinda sorta."

Satori slapped Yuyuko, her hand connecting with a ghostly cheek with a ringing and at the same time squelching sound. Yuyuko's head jerked to the side, then returned back, a wide smile on her face.

"Ghosts don't feel pain, although I appreciate the symbolism of the gesture. Should I slap your eye to symbolically demonstrate through pain that Utsuho is still alive?"

Satori quickly took a step back, covering her eye. "Don't you dare touch Okuu, you monster," she hissed. Yuyuko kept smiling.

"You know, I heard you were a very unpleasant youkai, as your mind-reading abilities made you somewhat of a marinated herring in personality. But now I see you are not that bad of a person at heart, so feel free to visit the Netherworld at your leisure, we'll talk more about life, death and rebirth. Now if you excuse me, that cookie jar beckons me."

She leaned under the counter, and Satori stumbled back out of the kitchen. Now the mansion indeed looked like a crypt, particles of dust shimmering in the morning sun, filling the air like ashes above the funeral pyre.

Satori returned to her room and Rin, still in cat form, greeted her with a yawn.

"We are returning home," Satori said. "I feel good enough to make a trip back, and this place holds nothing more for us."

Rin stared at her for a moment, then her form expanded, shifting to humanoid. She looked miffed. "But it would be impolite to leave—"

"I will write a formal letter," Satori cut her off. "If I spend another hour here, I will choke. This place reeks of death."

And then an image flashed in her head, a vision of the room burning, a vision of the whole mansion burning, the roof crumbling, burying everything and then melting. She saw walls, swarming with cycle breakers, the red inscriptions appearing black in the reddish hues of her vision. She saw Tewi in the basement, shuffling cups in front of Kaguya, both of them covered in wedged symbols of Pazuzu, walls boiling around them…

Then her vision returned to normal and Satori found out she was lying on the bed, Orin sitting beside her, holding her hand.

"What... happened?" Satori croaked, her throat dry. Rin jumped at her words.

"I... um, mistress, you fainted suddenly. I went for help, and Reisen told me to give you some rest. So..."

Satori sat upright and glanced at the window. It looked like it was way past midday already. Satori rubbed her forehead.

"I'm fine," she said after a while. "Let's write that letter and get out of here."

"But... they might need our help now... well, my help, with Eirin and all..."

"Orin, we will only trouble-"

Satori stopped. The room warped again, walls melting down, and Orin now burned too, she burned and smiled, a pained, and yet so happy smile. It was not like the first time, that vision was blurred and hurtful, and this one was clear and simple, like a memory of something that has already happened.

Satori blinked and the vision ended. The room was just as before red but completely normal, and Orin looked just as she normally did. Satori sighed, stood up from the bed and made her way to the small table. She started writing and Rin fidgeted, unsure of what to do. Since the morning, her mistress acted strange, and she didn't know how react to it.

"It is inevitable," Satori said, not turning away from her writing. "I should not be sad about it. I should not be shocked, or cry. It would be inappropriate. You did good, Orin, right until the end. There is little to regret."

"Um... mistress?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine," Satori said and stood up from the table, averting her eye. "I'll be just fine. Let's pack our things and you'll help me get to the Hell road. Then you'll return here and burn with the mansion. You will die happy, Orin, so it's all right."

"I... what?"

"I had a vision of your death," Satori said simply. "And I probably make no sense right now, I should fight fate, run down to the basement, warn everyone, try to save you..."

She trailed off and silence took hold. Rin blinked a few times, then shrugged. "I know not of one instance when fighting inevitable fate led to anything except suffering."

"And neither do I," Satori agreed. "And besides, the delivery was all wrong, but Yuyuko was right, you won't be dead as long as I remember you."

Silence fell between them again. Rin scratched behind her cat ear.

"I never thought the final goodbyes could be so... casual," she said. "I think we both became numb to death and despair because of all that happened recently. Should we start packing, then?"

Satori didn't answer. Instead, she stepped forward and hugged Rin, feeling her warmth, feeling her heartbeat. She held her, not wanting to let go, until the warmth became uncomfortable, then burned.

Then Satori released her and turned sharply. She squatted near the bed and pulled out a small empty suitcase from under it. She opened it and went for the cabinet where spare clothing was stored.

"Pick my things from the bathroom," Satori said over her shoulder. "And don't forget the toothbrush."

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Wriggle moved slowly through the scorched corridors of the temple, a cadre of corpses shuffling in front and behind her. The extreme heat that was generated by the core explosion warped the walls, and inscriptions melted, barely visible now.

Hatate was a fool. If she dedicated time to fortifying the defenses and didn't hurry so much with the activation of the main core, it would be all over long ago. But no, she had to mess up, allow herself to get drawn into an even fight with Sanae and damage such an immaculate beauty with her stupidity.

But it didn't matter. Even in such a pitiful state the temple would still serve its purpose. It would inspire fear and dread, it would serve as a proper demonstration of the power of a true God that is Pazuzu.

It would paint the world black.

Wriggle reached the main core chamber. It suffered the most, the room lost its shape, the stone melted into slag and all the inscriptions were ruined. Nothing remained of the altar, not even the slightest trace, it melted into the now concave floor completely.

Wriggle stepped into the middle of the room. The inscribed bugs surrounding her body dispersed, crawling to the walls and forming new inscriptions. Wriggle raised her arms, like a conductor at the start of the symphony, and the surrounding corpses shuffled to the edges of the room, chisels in their stiffened hands. Invisible threads supported their limbs, morbid marionettes in service to an insane puppeteer.

Wriggle twisted her fingers, and the corpses dug into soft stone in unison, wedging new words of power. They worked fast, continuing inscriptions of one another, following the bugs that led them.

The first line of inscriptions was ready, and Wriggle set the miniature octagonal furnace to the ground at the center of the room. The corpses now moved radially to the center, quickly wedging the lines of inscriptions to the eight corners of the furnace.

They simultaneously reached the center, cadavers of old humans and a stitched sunflower fairy working at the same mechanical speed, force and precision. Wriggle touched the furnace and muttered an activating incantation. It hummed softly and a spark of light appeared within.

The radial inscriptions glowed in sequence, symbol by symbol, lighting the circle of the runes on the walls. The light spread to the bugs, and they burned, fusing with the stone.

The light inside the spell furnace turned brighter, and some of the inscriptions started to move slowly. Hatate's actions, stupid as they were, did have the lasting consequences. The power, even shattered, was still within the temple, spread out over small, enclosed rooms. It was still here, useless and wild, but not for long.

Wriggle felt her own power grow with the temple. Power that did not belong to her, unstable, self-destructive power. It was not meant to be held for long, it was not meant to be held at all. Borrowed power, borrowed time, all for Yuuka, all for her wish. A falling star, flashing for one last time before burning out.

No, Wriggle was not a falling star, Hatate was. And Wriggle was a supernova, a piercing blast of light that would be seen for millennia after the core of the star is cold and dead.

Wriggle wailed, a silent wail that pierced the room, the temple. In the distant scribed rooms untouched by the core explosion symbols lit up, and spell gears turned in the hidden protected cavities. The wail continued further and the insects all over Gensokyo heard it, raising antennas up. The master was calling for them, and they obeyed.

Wriggle dropped to her knees, the wail took all the strength out of her. Around her, corpses fell, the magic holding them upright failing in an instant. Wriggle weakly looked up, at the spell furnace that was slowly rising in the air, rotating. A beam of light shot upward, flickering and pale but gaining in intensity with every second. The whole temple shuddered.

And started rising into the air.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"I have a single question," Reimu said after overcoming initial shock. "Is everyone seeing this?"

She was standing outside Eientei, and like others for the last minute or so she was staring, mouth agape, at the flying black pyramid that was slowly rotating and moving away from the mountains towards the Human Village.

"I see it," Reisen said. She escorted them out, as the death of her mistress seemed to cripple her less than others. Or she just hid it better, trying to escape from the grief in her duties.

"I see it too," Keine added. She, Daiyousei and Sunny came to Eientei for scheduled counseling this morning, but were not allowed in and spent a few hours in front of the mansion, Keine explaining exterior architecture. After a while, Satori and Rin exited the mansion, followed by Reimu, Youmu, Yuyuko and Reisen shortly after. They all prepared to say goodbyes when the pyramid started its ascent.

"Right," Reimu said slowly. "This is real. A giant three-terraced pyramid spontaneously became wrapped in darkness, rose up in the air and is floating ominously. We have to take action. We all have to do something about it, we can't stand and watch. Right…"

She looked around. "Right. Keine, get to the Human Village and evacuate everyone. I don't care how and where, just spread people around somehow."

"Of course, I will do what you ask. Come on, children, follow me," Keine said, but nearly had to drag them one by one with her only arm, as the fairies kept staring at the temple and muttering "So cool…". Reimu turned to Youmu.

"Youmu, you are the fastest so get to the shrine, wake up Suika and take her to Alice's house so she can carry explosives to the temple. The meeting place for the whole team is there."

Youmu looked at Reimu, then at Yuyuko. Her mistress nodded, and Youmu took off, her ghost half trailing behind. She quickly turned to a fast shrinking green dot.

"Reisen, I know this is not an appropriate time, and I know you are not that fast, but the Scarlet Devil Mansion has to be warned, we need heavy hitters. You up to the task?"

Reisen nodded, her face showing no emotion, only eyes redder than usual. She took off in the direction of the lake, and Reimu turned to Yuyuko.

"Just… make yourself useful somehow. As much as I don't want to see her, get Yukari or Ran, or at least Chen, where are they by the way? Or protect Netherworld, do something."

"Sure," Yuyuko said with a smile and opened a small paper fan. "I'll see what I can do, although I am quite slow in speed. Maybe I'll save everyone in the nick of time."

She slowly started to ascend, and Reimu shook her head.

"Just… oh, forget it," Reimu said and turned to Satori. "I know you don't care much about the surface, but I need someone to tell Nitori. Can I ask Orin?"

"Orin, do you want this?" Satori asked, and Rin fidgeted.

"Mistress, your eye—"

"I can see well enough," Satori cut her off. "I'll be safe, if you want to, then go. Everything has been said already, and—"

There was a silent flash of light, and at the top of the pyramid a star was born. The light was blinding only for a moment, then a flash turned to a white beam that fired into the sky at an angle.

Rin muttered something and backed away, taking off into the air and heading towards Nitori's house. Satori looked at her shrinking back, then shuddered, and her face showed pain. Her posture slumped and she blinked, a large tear falling to the ground from her eye.

"Hey, don't worry so much, she is going to be fine, I promise," Reimu said, but Satori turned away. Reimu sighed.

"Right, and I'll get Marisa. Hope she is not still mad at me about the morning…"

She flew off, and Satori remained alone in front of the mansion. I her mind Gensokyo burned, and Orin was already dead, killed during the temple assault.

It could not be averted. Nothing could be changed, all their efforts would have as much effect as trying to step in front of a derailed train to stop the catastrophe. Satori slowly started to back away from the mansion, and the pyramid kept firing into a single spot in the sky, five, ten, twenty times...

Then the temple rotated once again and then slowly tilted to the side. It kept tilting until it was flying upside down.

And then it fired again, at Eientei. Satori saw that the beam was not just white, it was mixed with inscriptions, and in her reddened vision they appeared as black.

The beam impacted an invisible barrier surrounding Eientei, spell shields deflecting the energy but not enough, clearly not enough. The beam went through and the whole roof caught fire, slithering inscriptions covering the building, cycle breakers among them. The windows of the building turned black, blocking escape.

The second beam went all the way down to the foundation, and the walls glowed red and steamed from the incredible heat.

The third beam turned the mansion into a puddle of molten stone.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Nitori's house looked uninviting, windows and the door covered in metal, smaller chimneys retracted in. Rin touched down on the porch and banged on the door plate.

"Open up! It's Orin, remember me? We met at the party, two weeks ago! Open up!"

One of the bricks near the door slid in, and a tube with a lens at the end stared Rin down. "Go away, I'm not in the mood," the echoing voice came from inside.

"I don't care about your mood! It's an apocalypse down here!"

There was a clang from inside, and the plate covering the door slid up. The door opened and Nitori peered out, her hair ruffled and her eyes red. Rin grabbed her by the shoulder and dragged her outside, pointing at the pyramid.

Nitori gaped at the gravity-defying structure in awe, and Orin patiently waited for a minute or so. In the meantime the temple fired a beam at the distant forest, creating a line of wildfire.

"It's flying…" Nitori said in amazement.

"Yes. It is flying, and we have to bring it down, because it is burning everything," Rin impatiently said. "Grab what you need and let's go."

Nitori tore her gaze from the temple with difficulty and turned to Rin. "We?"

"Yes we, we two are going to save Gensokyo. Naturally, everyone else will also fight but it may take them an hour or so to get everything in order, and I have a plan that will work. Do you want to be a hero or not?"

"I…" Nitori paused. There was something wrong with Orin, something burned in her eyes, a glint of… anticipation? Obsession? Madness?

"S-sure, I want to help everyone, just need a minute or so. I'll grab my suit and we'll go," Nitori said and ran back into her house. It gave her a few minutes to think and make the decision.

They were supposed to destroy the temple tomorrow, a boring, not in any way interesting event if not for the explosion in the end. They were supposed to get there at dawn, place the charges, check the detonators…

Nitori never considered it to be that important and firmly believed the building no longer possessed any threat after the first explosion. She helped, yes, but Alice did most of the job, and Nitori instead advanced her side project, subconscious separator. She never doubted for one moment Marisa would agree to lend her the spell furnace.

But she refused, and the machine was useless without it, the power crystals Utsuho gave her were just not enough. And if Orin was right, if they bring the temple down then she would be a hero. And then Marisa would have no choice but to agree, they would go together into the past and fix everything.

Nitori decided, put on her camouflage suit and backpack and rushed out. Orin was nervously pacing the front lawn, biting her nail. She snapped up when she saw Nitori.

"Ready? Let's go," she said and took off in the air first.

Nitori followed her silently. The temple fired again, and oddly enough, it didn't make much sound when it did so, just a muted screech and sizzling as the beam turned yet another minor landmark into a glassy flatland.

They moved closer and saw that the whole pyramid was covered in flowing red inscriptions, and untold numbers of bugs and locusts were circling it. The surface of the pyramid was smooth and completely black, and there were no visible entrances.

"Orin… you sure about this? I know Reimu solves incidents like this without breaking a sweat, but you…"

"I am already dead," Rin said casually. "Okuu's wish was to see Gensokyo burn, and now she will see it, sort of. And I will die, but if I die, I want to die like a hero and not alone."

Nitori gave her a confused look. "It's… a joke, right? Like Sanae joked, an inversion, right? You say you are doomed to die so you don't die, you fool the fate or something like that…"

"Sure," Rin said with a smile. "But shh, don't jinx it or, you know. Death and stuff."

"Oh, of course, you already dead person," Nitori said, but her heart was not in it. Sanae… she was not like that. She was confident and calm, she knew what she was doing. And she didn't lose a close friend a week ago.

The temple fired again, and its target was Scarlet Devil Mansion. From such a great distance it looked like a tiny dollhouse with a clock tower, and when the beam hit, defensive seals bloomed like a purple flower above it, absorbing the whole blast.

They were close to the temple now, and it started to retaliate. A few small swarms of bugs detached from the main host and gained on them, and inscriptions attacked too, coiling in spirals and lunging.

Rin and Nitori fired back, dodging and moving closer to the temple. It was nearly impossible to talk over the screeches and danmaku blasts, so Rin just pointed at the pinnacle of the overturned pyramid where energy gathered for another blast. Nitori nodded and hurried there.

The temple fired again, and this time the beam went through the protective shields of the vampire mansion, lighting the main building on fire. The intensity of the temple's retaliation remained constant, and Nitori saw that the origin point of the blasts was a tight knot of inscriptions at the pinnacle of the overturned pyramid.

The temple fired again, and this close the screech of the white, inscription tainted beam was nearly unbearable. The mansion melted, leaving a small dark cube floating in lava.

They reached the top and stopped. Rin cleared the area with a wide spread of multicolored spinning wheels.

"We need to destroy the focus!" Rin shouted over the screech of inscriptions. "On three, fire with me, One, Two…"

The focus energy knot turned white and Rin jerked back. So did Nitori, and the temple fired, hitting the small cube in the distance. Its surface rippled in purple and heated up, but the cube remained solid. The knot darkened and became red again.

"Once again!" Rin shouted. "One, two, three!"

They both fired, two concentrated blasts of blue orbs and green crystals. The inscriptions absorbed it and some detached, fluttering.

It looked like it triggered an alarm of some sort, because the whole surrounding cloud of insects swarmed to the pinnacle.

"Not enough! Again!"

Before they could do it, another beam readied. It hit the cube, but instead of melting it the structure suddenly turned fully purple and transparent and then vanished in a puff of purple mist.

"We won't do this in time! It requires seven or eight more shots!" Nitori shouted and fired at the approaching bugs and inscriptions. Rin did the same, and they were now back to back, warding off the red and black cloud of death.

Another beam, boiling the Misty Lake. Another beam, at the base of the Youkai Mountain. Another beam…

And then Rin, without saying anything, rushed to the inscribed knot, flying through it and disappearing from view. Nitori didn't even have time to be surprised, the black swarm quickly closed in on her and she activated the camouflage suit, dodging to the side.

The temple fired one last time, but the beam was weak and uneven, breaking up after a few seconds. The swarm and inscriptions stopped, the driving force behind them faltering.

Then Rin appeared in view again, her body burned and swarming with cycle breakers. She was falling, nearly a free fall. Nitori hurried after her and caught her close to the ground. They landed, and Nitori carefully set the burned girl down.

Rin coughed, something black and vile sputtering out. Nitori averted her eyes, it was all so horrifying, the smell, the face, the coughs…

"Hehe… it worked…" Rin whispered and managed to open one eye. "The beam made a tunnel… to the power source… barely made it… but hey… …"

She opened her hand, and something rolled to the ground. The spell furnace, covered in inscriptions, the wooden octagon burned and warped.

Nitori couldn't find the words to say. Her mind went blank, it was… it wasn't supposed to be like this! This morning, everything was perfectly fine! Then Marisa, then Orin…

"Hey… I'm a hero," Rin whispered. "And can you believe it… Wriggle is the villain… saw her there… the look on her face when I grabbed the power source… priceless…"

She weakly pointed up. The temple was descending, black shades on the surface fading and coming back again. This sight brought Nitori back to senses.

"We have to get out of here!" she shouted and tried to pull Rin up. Her hand slipped, leaving behind scraps of burned skin.

"Leave me… I know death… and it's the best… death… ever…"

Nitori looked at her. She wanted to cry, but the tears didn't come. Orin would not die. No one was going to die. She would save everyone.

The temple was falling, and the shadow from it covered the sun. Nitori clenched her teeth and grabbed the spell furnace.

She ran without turning, and Rin smiled, looking at the approaching pyramid with her only working eye. Her wish came true, she had to buy a new wheelbarrow when Okuu died. Now she would die too, and Satori would become accepted by humans and youkai. What was that Nitori wished for? Becoming a god? Maybe that would also come true, and all Gensokyo would be destroyed. And her wish, Okuu's wish, Satori's wish – they all would mean absolutely nothing. Everyone and everything dies, and there are no inner meanings, no final answer, no resolution. Everything just dies.

Somehow, Rin found all of this to be rather funny. And she kept smiling even when the temple connected with the ground, crushing her.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Nitori was trying to push the spell furnace into its slot. It refused to go in, creaking dangerously, and Nitori cringed at every crack. If it broke… then everything would be lost, absolutely everything.

Nitori worked with feverish determination, bending the supports for the spell furnace with a screwdriver and pushing the damaged device in little by little. Soon, she would have all the power she needs. Soon, everyone would be saved. Everyone would again be happy, and smile, and there would be spell card fights, and no one would die.

The spell furnace cracked again, much louder than before, and a hairline fracture appeared on its surface. A thin flat ribbon of light escaped from within, nearly slicing through the side of Nitori's right wrist and continuing forward through the house wall.

Nitori didn't even flinch. Nearly didn't count. She would manage to do it with only one hand anyway. Soon, everyone would be saved, and that was all that mattered.

The spell furnace finally took its place in the slot. Nitori carefully closed the cover, ducked under the ribbon of light and went to the main chamber of the machine.

Uncountable hours of research went into this. Many visits to Patchouli's library, books on theory of relativity, time compression and infrasound borrowed and returned, all of this over the course of the last year. Recent experiments with chemicals, natural, brewed and extracted from plants, mushrooms, Eirin's elixirs.

First prototype, rendered useless because of coolant failure. Second prototype, nearly finished but destroyed by Ran Yakumo when she threw a tantrum and fired her spells inside the house, Nitori barely escaping with her life. These prototypes were never designed for something serious, they were designed for fun exploration of what the dimension of time had to offer. But the time for fun was long gone. Now it was time for change.

Third prototype, powered by Utsuho's power crystals, by the spell furnace. Everything accounted for, the drug solution measured to the fractions of a milligram. The sequence of infrasound pulses tested over a hundred times. The equations checked, rechecked and then wiped out, proven again by the different method and led to the same result.

Nitori released the lock on the boiler door and stepped inside. In present, no time would pass. She would sit down, breathe in the chemical solutions and lose consciousness for a second. Her spirit would go back in time and persuade Yukari not to bring the temple in Gensokyo, easy as that.

Then she would return back, open the door, and Gensokyo would be bright and colorful again, no forest fires or destroyed mansions. And everyone would live.

From inside the chamber, Nitori activated the sound generator. She dropped her backpack and sat on a small chair, relaxing her shoulders. So what if the device was never tested before properly? So what if the tiniest error in the equations would kill her?

"Everything will go wrong," Nitori whispered. "But it will work regardless."

A soft hissing sound indicated that the machine started to pump in chemicals. Nitori breathed in deeply, and felt the chamber expand around her. Something started to flash at the edge of her vision, green and red flashes of fire. She could now hear the low hum of resonating sound, the sparks inside the power crystals, the beat of Light of Creation inside the spell furnace.

The walls of the chamber turned transparent, then vanished. Her house was around her, and she saw it shift, furniture, devices moved, she saw herself, going around it in blur, sitting at the table, reading in the chair, sleeping…

She saw a blur of yellow, Ran, firing danmaku around, devices crumbling and being restored. Her vision doubled, then tripled as she saw past, present and future, every possibility, every alternative outcome of every action, every word that was spoken inside these walls.

And then she saw it in the present, a lone inscribed bug crawling from a fold in her clothing. She swatted it to the ground and it burst into black slime upon impact, the inscription exploding out of it, a full intact cycle breaker, latching and coiling around her.

And everything stopped. The air became filled with the sound of howling wind, but nothing moved, the cycle broken, time itself broken. Nitori saw a black spot appear on the door, and it spread fast around the house until everything became shiny, reflective black. Only the white ribbon of light from the spell furnace remained unchanged, crossing the blackened room.

A creature stepped through the closed door, a misshapen, hunched humanoid, four stumps of destroyed wings behind its back. It didn't have a face, just a toothless horizontal slit where a mouth should have been. It walked awkwardly, dragging its leg, and in right arm it was holding a dull, curved sword.

Nitori tried to move, she tried to shout, but her efforts amounted to absolutely nothing. She couldn't even move her eyes, and the creature approached, howling of wind in completely still air around it.

It passed through the ribbon of light and stopped next to the control box. It reached out with the mangled arm and opened the cover, revealing crystals, tubes, the spell furnace. The creature slowly raised the sword up and turned its eyeless head to Nitori.

"I find your obsession amusing," it said in a screeching, reverberating voice. "I shall grant your desire."

Then it slashed down, across the spell furnace.

And the spell furnace exploded in a brilliant and silent white flash, the ball of plasma vaporizing the control box, the boiler, Nitori's house and a good chunk of surrounding land.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	16. Spiritual

**Shard 16: Spiritual**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The temple was lying on the side, shadows crawling on its surface. The impact created enormous cracks spanning the whole building, and red flickered from the inside. Swarms of bugs and locusts buzzed over it, the malevolent force guiding them severely crippled but not gone.

In front of the largest break Reimu was standing, her ofuda stick at the ready. At her side, Youmu Konpaku, blades drawn, and behind them Suika and Reisen were sitting on a sandstone block, the former one severely drunk, and the latter – severely shocked, staring into the ground.

"The incident will be resolved today," Reimu declared. "I've had enough of all this. If needed, I'll tear through the throat of this evil with my teeth."

"What evil?" Reisen asked bitterly, not looking up. "Eientei is gone, Gensokyo is burning, and we don't even know whom to fight. It is like playing with Tewi at cups and balls, she always wins…"

Reisen stopped and tugged herself on her broken ear. "…she always won, because she cheated. This Pazuzu – he cheats. We can't win. We can't even—"

"Shut up," Reimu barked. "I've had it enough of these stupid metaphors. I've had it enough of deaths, of funerals and crying faces. The enemy has a name, and it is Wriggle Nightbug. And Yukari was right when she said this corrupted wretch had to be sealed."

A string of cycle breakers slithered from the temple and closed in for the attack. Youmu met them, dancing through their ranks, cutting inscriptions with her blades, symbols firing up and going out. It was probably the fifth time she did it already since their arrival to the temple crash site.

Reisen raised her head. If it was possible, her eyes were even redder now. "You don't know anything," she said. "You can only assume. Where are the corpses from the morgue? Where is Alice and her explosives? Where are Orin, Nitori, Marisa? Where is Wriggle, is it even she controlling the bugs? Why did the temple fall? Only questions, and no answers."

"I don't care," Reimu shot back. "Everyone is presumed missing until proven otherwise. And if you don't want to go inside, say it clearly."

"Marisa is inside," Suika suddenly said, and her eyes shot open. "She wouldn't miss such an opp…urutunity, no, not her. The temple is so… awesum, so she is inside. Or dead. Or both."

Her eyes closed and she fell back, falling asleep for good. Youmu recoiled from the expression on Reimu's face.

"Missing. Until proven. Otherwise," Reimu growled through clenched teeth. "I am going in. Everyone else can do what they like. I am finishing it, today."

She turned sharply and floated towards the nearest opening in the temple wall. Youmu silently followed, alert, cutting any bugs that came close enough.

Reisen didn't move, looking at them until they disappeared inside. She then stood up and went to Suika, rattling her.

"Wuh? Wazzup?"

"Suika, can you fly? We need to get out of here, the cycle breakers will get us if we stay."

Suika responded with a groan. She crawled on her knees and rose in the air unsteadily. "Uuugh… sure. Let's fly and see our new hellike home. I love the fires…"

They took off and flew slowly over the burnt pine forests, trees sticking out like broken needles, over the dried bottom of the Misty Lake, over the bamboo forest that was now no more than a black featureless plain, over the holes in the ground where the beam dug through the earth all the way to Hell, over the burned remains of everything majestic, wondrous, mysterious, beautiful…

They flew towards the only place in Gensokyo that remained untouched by the beams. And if the intelligence guiding the annihilator temple had a sense of humor, it was surely one of the most sadistic and cruel jokes ever conceived.

They flew towards the Human Village.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Reimu and Youmu were flying along the ceiling of the tilted corridor, the ceiling serving now as a wall. Walking was impossible, and no one would want to walk on the inscriptions anyway. They were mostly harmless, pulsating like blood vessels, prolonging the agony of the temple.

It was dying, and it was obvious. More often than not, Reimu saw inscriptions go out and crumble, and dead bugs littered the floor.

And yet, it was still dangerous, firing at them constantly. No, those were not spears or boulders, only spells, devious, destructive spells. Streams of acid, flame jets, slicing disks of energy… And Reimu couldn't help but think how much this kind of adventure Marisa would enjoy.

Youmu didn't enjoy any of this. She was focused, slicing the projectiles that broke through Reimu's rectangular barriers, watching the walls for hidden cycle breakers, cutting the rubble where it was needed. Since the incident started she was relentless, dedicating up to ten hours a day to inscription hunt, always bringing the report at the end of the day and sliding it silently on Reimu's table. In this habit she and Reisen had a lot in common, only Reisen always regarded the whole thing with an attitude of a soldier that has seen it all (up to this morning, naturally), and Youmu treated it like an ultimate test of her abilities as a warrior.

But then again, she treated almost everything this way, up to and including mowing of lawns, cutting vegetables and combing her hair, so this really was not that much of a surprise.

They reached one of the temple rooms, or rather an artificial open space created by the crevasses and the partial corridor collapse, and stopped to rest a bit. The area looked devoid of inscriptions, so Youmu sheathed her blades and wiped her hands with a handkerchief. Reimu sat on a relatively flat boulder. They spent a few minutes in silence.

"I have a question," Youmu then said. "How do you plan on stopping the inscriptions from escaping from the structure once we destroy the source of corruption?"

Reimu winced slightly. "I don't. Once the source is destroyed they will wither and die on their own."

If Youmu doubted it, she didn't show it. She carefully walked to the wall crevasse and looked outside, at the blasted and torn landscape.

"I have another question. How do you plan on restoring Gensokyo to its previous state?"

Reimu winced again. "Over time. Winter is coming, the damage won't be as visible under snow. Then we'll round up gods, youkai and we will do a big project in spring with plants and rivers. Then we'll work on landscape. Two – three years should do it."

"I have another—"

"Youmu, you are giving me a headache. Yes, I have everything figured out and know what I am doing. You should worry about how we are going to fight the risen corpse of Utsuho Reiuji, not the fact that the lakes went dry."

Youmu's eyes went wide. She suddenly lost posture and stumbled back. "R-r-risen corpse?"

"Yes, Youmu, we are going to fight animated unholy shells of our former friends. I don't know of any other purpose why Wriggle would steal the bodies from the morgue."

Youmu backed to the crumbling wall. "B-but…"

"But you are afraid, of course. Because you work and live with ghosts, you are half-ghost yourself, so it is _perfectly natural and logical_ that you would be afraid," Reimu said, putting so much venom in these words that they could probably shatter a cycle breaker in mid-air. Youmu didn't appreciate the sarcasm.

"I… am not afraid," she pushed out. "I will… imagine they are made of colored clay, like the replica Patchouli made, and I will fight at the best of my abilities."

"You'd better," Reimu said and stood up. "Because at the pinnacle of necromancy, the shells retain the spell-like abilities they had in life, so we may expect nuclear suns and fully powered darkness signs."

She floated towards the nearest corridor that led to the core of the building, and Youmu followed, drawing her blades on the way.

"You know," she said. "It really would be better, I'd focus on danmaku. It would be worse if they just shambled, groaned and reached forward, eyes filled with pus…"

She trailed into mutterings, and all color drained from her already pale face. Reimu didn't say anything to that. She rounded the corner and stopped.

"Well, Youmu, you are in luck. At least you won't be tortured by uncertainty, as we've reached our destination."

The corridor opened into a large globular inscribed chamber. Bodies littered the floor, villagers and fairies. At the center of the chamber, a dark throne of flowing bugs was looming, Wriggle Nightbug sitting awkwardly on it, leaning to the side and breathing rapidly and shallowly. She was not covered in bugs and her shirt, pants and cloak were stained to the point of being brownish black. Her antennas were broken.

Reimu stepped forward. "Wriggle, don't you dare pull Hatate on me. I don't buy it you are dying and somehow keeping the temple operational. Get up and fight."

Wriggle didn't respond, flexing her wrist instead. There was a push of air, and a huge stone block has fallen behind Youmu, blocking the exit. The bugs covered Wriggle, forming the partial armor.

Reimu grinned. "Well, that's more like it. Show me the power of Pazuzu, so I can prove that good always prevails. Show me your best."

"Good never prevails," Wriggle said, sounding very tired. "In the grand scale of things, it never does. And definitely not in this room. But you are right, I will show you some amazing things."

She raised her arm, keeping the other behind her back. The corpses on the ground shuddered and started to rise up. Youmu yelped and backed to the inscribed wall, blades in front of her.

Reimu fired a test shot of amulets, energy orbs and ying-yang balls. The projectiles reached the first corpse and shattered against the green energy barrier in front of it.

"Eirin's power," Wriggle said, in the same infinitely tired voice. "Alice's power. My power. The power of Pazuzu. All of it is nothing before the power of entropy, decay and death. You can not win."

The corpses rose in the air, and Reimu recognized Alice among them, the face of the puppeteer dirty and her dress torn. She also saw strings, nearly invisible strings going from Wriggle's hand to the bodies.

"It's not necromancy!" Reimu shouted. "They are just puppets, only made of flesh rather than clay! Youmu, flank left, I'll go right!"

She activated the spell card _Spirit Sign: Fantasy Seal -Concentrate-_. As the name implied, it concentrated all power, all the numerous red and purple rectangular spell amulets at the single point – the throne. A similar green shield rose up in front of it, absorbing the energy.

Youmu remained standing, her teeth clattering. The corpses closed in on her, empty dried up eyes, stiffened, clawed fingers. In front there was Utsuho, a hole in her chest, an empty space where her head should have been. Her midsection looked bloated.

"I am not afraid!" Youmu shouted and her arms steadied. "You are all not real! Not real!"

She lunged forward, cutting through the barrier, through the body of Utsuho with both blades. She expected a fountain of gore but only black dust gushed from inside, dust and exposed wires. Surprised, Youmu stopped for a second, and one of the fairy cadavers clamped her thin arms around her left leg.

Wriggle clicked something behind her back, the fairy released a single *beep* and exploded. One of the nearby corpses did the same, and Youmu was thrown to the ground, her skin and dress torn by the shrapnel.

Reimu's spell card shut off. Wriggle brought her other hand forward, the main detonator control in it. She directed all the remaining corpses to the ground, and one of them burst, throwing the cycle breaker in front of it, the inscription coiling around Youmu and catching her ghost half, drawing it to her body.

"This is between me and Reimu," Wriggle said and flipped all the tumblers up, the frantic Reimu's danmaku absorbed by the shield. "We don't need helpless failures as spectators."

She pressed the button, sending the detonation signal to all remaining corpses, one of them only a few inches from reaching Youmu's head with his clawed arm.

But before the explosives went off, Youmu managed to throw her long blade forward.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Reimu regained consciousness. She was lying facedown on the ground, her throat burned, and there was dull pulsating pain in her arms.

The room was filled with thick grey smoke, the red wall inscriptions weakly flickering in and out. Reimu coughed and got up with some difficulty. A stick in her hand broke, leaving her with a useless splinter, so she threw it away.

She gestured, and the smoke parted, funneling out through the cracks and debris-filled corridors. In the center of the room the throne became visible, but it was no more than a mound of dead and dying bugs now. Wriggle was leaning on it, tugging weakly at the hilt of the sword at the right side of her chest, her armor gone. Reimu floated up in the air and moved closer, towering over the small youkai, her sleeves fluttering in the winds of power.

"Good always prevails," she declared. "Even if great sacrifice is needed first."

Wriggle looked up at her and managed a pained, tired smile. "Pazuzu… he showed me Yuuka's wish… and she was right… she was so right… to make it…"

Reimu swooped down and grabbed the hilt, twisting it, producing a scream from Wriggle. She returned a smile of her own, a cold, twisted smile.

"You are not Wriggle Nightbug," Reimu said and gave the sword another twist. "You are the last dying remnant of the incident I solved. I will kill you, and the inscriptions will die. And everyone will return back to life."

"And it will all turn out to be… just a dream…" Wriggle whispered, somehow managing sarcasm.

Reimu frowned and pulled the sword out. Its blade became red, uncountable cycle breakers swarming under the surface. Wriggle yelped and covered the open wound that was oozing with black liquid instead of blood. Reimu gave the sword a testing twirl.

"Huh," she said. "And they said Roukanken can not be wielded by humans."

She put the tip of the sword under Wriggle's chin. "You can't even possibly imagine how I am going to enjoy all this."

"Why? I killed Eirin, I can… relate. Yuuka would be proud of me… of you…"

Reimu grabbed Wriggle by the collar and flung her from the mound, the small youkai rolling on the floor, leaving behind a trail of black blood. Reimu stepped down and started approaching slowly, twirling her katana.

"Yuuka would not be proud of you becoming a corrupted, insane wretch. She would not appreciate you burning half of Gensokyo."

Wriggle managed to prop herself up on an elbow. "Really? I think I have become everything… she wanted me to be. But you know… she is here…so let's ask her… in person..."

Reimu froze for a split second then jumped back, surveying the room. Wriggle laughed, a choking, coughing laugh.

"Oh yes… you still remember her… and even you are afraid… Yuuka… it's time…"

Wriggle extended her arm towards one of the side passages, and something slowly moved in the shadows. Reimu positioned herself carefully, keeping her eyes on the other passages. It probably was just a diversion, a trick, and she has had enough of dirty tricks.

A figure stumbled into view with the same awkward gait as the corpses before. Humanoid in shape, covered in vines and flowers, a single sunflower instead of a face. It wore the tattered remains of Yuuka's red plaid jacket and skirt, a torn and broken umbrella in its right hand.

And in its left was the idol of Pazuzu, clinking on the ground with every step.

Wriggle smiled at the figure's approach. "Look… I made a wish… that she will come back to life… and look… her spirit is alive… in my heart… in your heart… she is reborn from our memories... Yuuka..."

"Wriggle, I can see the strings," Reimu said coldly. "It's just a scarecrow, a puppet controlled by you, probably also filled with explosives. It is not Yuuka, you are insane."

"It is Yuuka… only she has the power… to destroy you… be afraid…"

Reimu floated down. Up close, she saw that it was not a scarecrow. It was a corpse, vines coiling around flesh, dark clothing underneath, sunflower was covering the face, grass woven into dirty blonde hair. Reimu winced and slashed at the strings.

The corpse crumpled down, falling to its knees, but Wriggle caught it with another string and it didn't fall further. Wriggle then crawled slowly towards the kneeling figure.

"Yuuka… I did the best I could… but you must destroy Reimu… yourself. I am so tired… will you… let me sleep… on your knees… like you let me… remember?"

Reimu stepped forward and slashed down, the blade going through Wriggle's neck. She then pulled the blade back and fired down a few times, normal blast, a blast of sealing amulets, normal blast again, a blast of amulets again…

She kept firing until nothing remained but a few bone fragments and a quickly evaporating pool of black oil.

Reimu turned to Yuuka's scarecrow. It has fallen to the side, still holding an umbrella and the idol. Reimu carefully stepped closer, rising up protective barriers as she went. She stopped a few feet from it and lowered the red sword.

Something was familiar about this figure, this corpse, but she couldn't remember what exactly. It was not Yuuka, Yuuka was taller, definitely taller. She had a feeling she saw this person before… where? At the village? At her shrine?

Reimu slowly pushed the blade under the sunflower and cut the stem that was stuck in the mouth of the corpse, thus removing the mask.

A pale, gaunt face, half-opened amber eyes, dried blood on the chin, a small ruffled braid tied with a tiny white bow. Suika was right, even death couldn't stop Marisa Kirisame from participating in the assault on the mysterious temple of darkness.

Reimu started laughing.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Reimu laughed, stumbling back through the tilted corridors of the crumbling temple. She laughed and slashed the air in front of her, she slashed the walls, the blade going through the stone with a screech every time.

Around her, inscriptions were detaching from the walls, coiling up and rising to the sky. Reimu didn't care. There were no more reasons left to care.

She was holding the idol of Pazuzu in her other hand. Reisen was right, there was no point in fighting it. She would join him, and they would paint the world black, together. And then he would reward the faithful, those who were not afraid to believe. And he would bring Marisa back.

Wriggle was not worthy, and that's why Pazuzu didn't grant her wish, but she, Reimu of the Hakurei shrine, she would be worthy. She would do everything that would be required.

A cycle breaker leapt from the wall onto her, and she didn't resist, allowing it to be absorbed. Pazuzu did not tolerate failure, he did not give a second chance. Perfection or nothing. There was no middle ground.

Reimu floated out of the temple. She would have to sustain the illusion of normalcy for a while. The symbols faded under her skin, and the sword turned shiny again, all the inscriptions hiding close to the hilt. This sword, it was no longer the Lookout-Tower Sword. She would probably think later of an appropriate name, the Soul Eraser or something like that.

Reimu shielded her eyes from the sun. Most of the fires went out already, and the sky was covered in smoke, but it was still not enough. Pazuzu demanded nothing but perfection, but the world was not perfect yet, not even close. There were still those who dared to resist, and Reimu would have to destroy them all, one by one.

"Reimu! Reimu!"

Someone was approaching from above, wildly flailing her arms and shouting her name. She flew closer and stopped, out of breath despite being a full ghost. Yuyuko Saigyouji.

"Reimu, it's a complete disaster!" Yuyuko shouted and pointed up. "The temple, remember it firing into the sky? It melted the gates to the Netherworld, killed the Prismrivers! The spirits are escaping and are being corrupted by the inscriptions! We need a temporary barrier, now!"

Reimu resisted bursting into a cackling laughter. She kept a stern and non-indicative expression and quickly floated closer. Yuyuko noticed a sword and the idol and froze in place.

"Wait, Reimu, why are you—"

Reimu sliced forward, and Yuyuko instinctively put her arm up in defense. The blade went through her palm, leaving a red inscribed streak behind.

Yuyuko jerked her arm back and shrieked, recoiling from the sword. The inscriptions spread from the cut down her arm, turning her ghostly flesh shriveled and black. Yuyuko grabbed her arm and tore it away, but the corruption already spread past her shoulder. Her clothing started crumpling like burnt paper.

Yuyuko stopped and glared at Reimu. "Yukari will kill you for this," she said calmly.

"She can sure try. I think I'll leave her for dessert," Reimu said with a small smile that turned wider with every word. "You like food metaphors, don't you, Yuyuko? She will be a strawberry on top of the cake of my ascent into the void."

Half of Yuyuko's body was already gone, crumbled away by the spreading and multiplying inscriptions.

"I am not afraid," she said, her voice slightly trembling. "Youmu and I will be forever remembered, we will live in the memories of humans, in memories of the land. You can't destroy…"

The inscriptions closed on her throat. Reimu clicked her tongue.

"You know, when I flew over the bamboo forest I saw one of the beams hit Mokou and turned her into nothing. I should have felt something but I didn't. It was just a name to be chalked up. And yours is no different, and in no way special."

Yuyuko was now almost completely destroyed, but life was still in her eyes, and she managed to give Reimu one hell of a glare. Reimu returned her yet another sadistic smile.

"Oh wait, you are special. You close the alphabet. Alice, Eirin, Kaguya, Marisa, Mokou, Prismrivers, Tewi, Wriggle, Youmu, Yuyuko. All dead in a day. I think I'll make a similar list tomorrow."

The last tattered remains of Yuyuko burned up and were torn by the wind, joining the smoke and ash in the air. Reimu stretched and turned to the crumbling temple behind her, inscriptions escaping from it like wasps from the destroyed hive.

Reimu turned the idol to her and examined the melted face with curiosity. All these years of rituals, all the strict rules of the shrine, all the temptations she resisted, all the relationships she never got into because of her being a shrine maiden – all of it no more than dust before an ugly bronze statue.

Reimu smiled. She now knew what her own wish would be.

"Pazuzu, Pazuzu, Pazuzu. I wish to have some fun."

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	17. Supernatural

**Shard 17: Supernatural**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Night has come and gone, lit by the smaller forest fires at the edges of Gensokyo. The dawn was bleak and sickly, the sun rays barely managing to break through the dark clouds. The smell of burning wood was everywhere, there was no escaping it.

A small huddled crowd gathered on the main square of the Human Village. Everyone was armed, not with farm implements but with real weapons, ancestral swords and spears taken out of ceremonial stands, creaky old armor dusted off and put to use.

A little to the distance an old school was visible, broken windows and burn marks on the walls giving the building a miserable appearance. Condemned by Reimu and scheduled for demolition the structure nevertheless still stood, as Patchouli never finished the research on it properly. The building was clearly haunted, so some of the more concerned citizens took it upon themselves an initiative to destroy it. The attempts of arson were met with autonomous fire extinguisher spells, so the villagers gave up after a few tries.

And now, despite its reputation and recent events, the building served as a shelter for refugee youkai, those who managed to escape their habitat in time or were just lucky enough to not be at home when the temple started firing.

The main doors opened, and four girls exited the school, making their way towards the crowd. Keine in front, keeping her posture and inspiring authority, dragging Satori by the arm. Suika and Reisen flanked them.

They stopped in front of the school fence gates, and the crowd slowly moved closer, weapons at the ready, the closed gate between them and youkai. The leader of humans, a burly bearded man, stepped forward.

"We, the people, demand answers," he said, trying to make his voice sound imposing. "What you, the guardian of the village, have to say in your defense?"

Keine looked sourly at all the brandished weapons. "Is this all really necessary? We are not your enemies…"

"The flying building that burned everything around and caused earthquakes is not our fault," the leader said, and the crowd behind him muttered approvingly.

"It's not our fault either," Suika said, stepping forward. She was sober and definitely cranky. "We are suffering as much as you do, even more. The least you could do is to allow us all to stay in your village for a while."

"Not the satori," a voice came from the rear of the crowd. "Crawl back to the hole where you belong, you monster."

Satori lowered her head and tugged Keine's sleeve. "I told you," she whispered.

Keine frowned and freed her arm. She pointed at the crowd. "The one who said it, step forward and apologize, now."

The crowd defensively growled and locked their ranks, but someone pushed forward regardless, an old man in a rusted breastplate. Satori remembered that man, he was on the market square, suggesting to push her away in a ditch. She instinctively backed away, but Keine caught her arm.

"Apologize to Satori," Keine said. The man spit to the side.

"Keine, satori feed on emotions and you know it. If she stays, she will drain us over time, drain our will to live. Reisen induces madness with her eyes, she can't stay for long either. And oni…" he pointed at Suika. "…they destroy everything around, because they can't control their strength."

In Satori's reddened vision, the man suddenly split in half, vertically cut by something. Around, most of the armed villagers met the same fate, cut, pierced, slashed…

Satori cringed and blinked. The man and the crowd were like before intact, but she knew it was going to happen soon, in a few hours at most. Most of these men were already dead.

Her cringe didn't go unnoticed, and Keine turned to her, as did the man. Satori wanted to cover under their looks.

"Go away," the man said.

"It's not your fault," Satori responded out of context. "It's not anyone's fault. I don't blame anyone of you for what happened to me, you reacted as expected of humans. I will go away, and—"

"You won't go anywhere," Keine cut her off. "And no one goes anywhere. Youkai will stay and help with repairs around the village. Suika will help with heavy stuff and distribute sake, responsibly. Reisen will help the wounded, and I and Satori will help at best of our abilities. In exchange the minor fairies and youkai inside the school get to stay too."

There was silence. The old man munched on his chewing tobacco, keeping his eyes on Satori's blindfold.

"Fine," he finally said. "I apologize. You were really sick back then, and we didn't help you. We won't start a war over this, we have bigger problems, like surviving the winter with the crops destroyed. Get moving."

He gestured, and the crowd split, half following him back to the village, half staying with the burly leader. "We are at your service," he said to Keine. Keine sighed.

"Well… let's see what the damage is, I guess," she said and opened the fence gates.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Reimu approached the village casually. She decided there was no point in maintaining the disguise of sanity. She suppressed her true feelings and emotions all these years, all to maintain an image of a serious shrine maiden, the one who always knew what to do. Now the village would see the real her, unchained from all moral restrictions. Oh, how very surprised they all would be.

She flew in closer and landed at the edge, katana in her hand. She left the heavy idol where the inscriptions told her, in a small undamaged patch of bamboo forest near the ruins of the Hakurei shrine, the building completely destroyed by one of the temple beams. Reimu spent the night there, not bothering to change her clothes, dirty with ash and grime, damaged by the explosion. She tore off her right sleeve so it would not hinder the swings.

She walked down the main street, smiling broadly. The first person that stops her, the first one who asks her for help she is going to cut down, the blade providing the cycle breaker as the part of the strike. And then she would walk forward, mowing people like grass, and nothing would stop her.

It felt so good to be free. Thousands of cycle breakers escaped, and it was not her problem. The gates of Netherworld were destroyed, and it was not her problem. The spirits were being corrupted by hundreds, and it was not her problem. She dared anyone to come closer and tell her that she should be doing something about that right now.

But the street was empty, and Reimu started to get bored. She looked around and noticed movement on the parallel street, someone flying. Keeping her smile, Reimu made a turn around the house to meet that person.

It was Daiyousei, the fairy looking slightly dazed, like she spent the whole night up. Her green ponytail was ruffled, and she was carrying a bucket full of fish with both hands. Seeing Reimu, she stopped and set the bucket down. Reimu was still grinning madly, and Daiyusei returned a bright smile of her own.

"Ah, Daiyousei," Reimu said, coming closer and twirling her blade. "Isn't it funny that you are alive while Marisa is dead?"

"Um…" Daiyousei said, at loss for words after such a greeting. "Isn't it how it was supposed to be? I mean, fairies live much longer than humans, I was supposed to outlive…" She stopped, and her eyes widened. "Oh no, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it like that! I'm sorry about Marisa!"

She started bowing profusely, saying "I'm sorry" over and over again. Reimu stopped in front of her and scowled.

"What do you know about loss?" she asked, raising her sword slightly. "You stupid fairies don't even have an emotion for grief."

"Um… I lost Cirno, and we kinda have an emotion for grief. I felt emptiness, and then Eirin helped me fill this emptiness with other things. Keine-sensei helped too, and Sunny, and Reisen, and even Tewi."

"Really? What a complex character you turned out to be," Reimu said with sarcasm, raising her sword even higher. "Any other hidden depths you'd like to reveal me before you die?"

"I don't really understand, sorry. I have to hurry, we are collecting fish from the nearby dried river. It didn't start to spoil yet, so if we cook it now we will have at least some supplies for the approaching winter."

She lifted the bucket with difficulty. Reimu blocked her way.

"You are one of those who oppose the coming of the new black Gensokyo," she hissed, preparing to strike. "I can't let you walk away alive."

Daiyousei blinked. "But… isn't Gensokyo in its residents? I mean, if everyone starves and dies, what's the point?"

Reimu stopped. Was there no limit to stupidity of fairies?

"I sold my soul to Pazuzu," Reimu said slowly. "I am evil. I am about to kill you. You are about to die, this sword kills forever. Do you get it now?"

"Oh," Daiyousei said. "Please don't kill me? I'll join Pazuzu too if you like."

"I…" Reimu stumbled. "It… doesn't work like this."

"Why?" Daiyousei innocently asked.

"Because…"

Reimu stopped. How many times did she kill Daiyousei in her life? Probably more than twenty, for as trivial reasons as stealing pastry from vendors in the village. And now, when she had the power to kill her forever, to enjoy her dying squeak… it just didn't feel right. Not in the middle of a street, when she looked with those empty stupid eyes and held a bucket of fish.

"Ugh…" Reimu continued. "It was a test, and you passed by showing… the secret quality I was testing you for. I am not really evil, I just say strange things because I hit my head yesterday. Don't tell anyone about our meeting."

She reached out and patted Daiyousei on the head lightly. She then stepped to the side, and the confused fairy continued down the street. She will probably tell everyone, Reimu absently thought. The meeting left her with a strange feeling of emptiness.

Reimu pulled her thoughts in order. She had a mission to destroy anyone who opposed the coming of Pazuzu's new future. She would deal with Daiyousei later, for now there were more fun and exciting events waiting for her.

Because in a distance a screeching gap appeared and Yukari fell out of it, landing somewhere at the village square.

Reimu twirled her blade once, put a smile on her face, and made her way towards the new arrival.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Yukari was sitting on the ground, massaging her ankle. Her cap was crumpled and stained, and red ribbons were untied in places. There was a prominent cut on her cheek. Reimu raised an eyebrow.

"Don't tell me you hurt your ankle because of the fall," she said, coming closer. Yukari jolted up, startled.

She stood up to her full height, but she still didn't look imposing or powerful, she looked almost scared, just like she was when the school was attacked.

"I didn't hurt anything," she said, managing a glare. "I am the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo, show respect."

"And I am the pure and in no way corrupted shrine maiden," Reimu said with a straight face. "I am taking the death of Marisa very well, and remain a stable, sane person, despite the fact that she was infected by the cycle breaker and will get no afterlife."

Yukari stared at her, an expression of nothing but shock. She opened her mouth and then closed it. Then she quickly turned away. "I am sorry," she said woodenly.

"Oh, sure you are. You were always so caring and considerate, and now you are sorry. Oh, and Yuyuko is dead too. And Youmu. And Eirin. And—"

"Stop it," Yukari said, turning back. There were tears at the corners of her eyes. "I know I failed, I don't need that to be rubbed into my face. We have bigger problems, Reimu."

"Oh really, do tell," Reimu said with a smirk. This Yukari, this strangely talking, strangely weak and pathetic Yukari amused her to no end.

"Reimu, the gate to Netherworld has fallen," Yukari said gravely, and Reimu barely suppressed a snicker. "An army is gathering, an army of corrupted spirits. We must stop them."

There was a pause. Reimu wondered if she could kill Yukari right on the spot. One slash, and it's over. But it wouldn't be any fun, would it?

"Oh sure," Reimu said. "I'll protect the village with barriers, and you take on them, oh the most powerful of youkai. I'm sure that you'll destroy them all without breaking a sweat."

Another shocked look. Reimu couldn't help but think of how Yukari resembled a beached fish right now.

"I… can't do this alone…"

"Sure you can!" Reimu exclaimed and gave Yukari a hearty slap on the shoulder. "You'll do great! You have Ran, and Chen, you took a good, long nap while we all suffered, and fought, and died for nothing, and now it's your turn to save us all!"

Yukari did not respond, looking somewhere over Reimu's head. Her expression slowly turned to the one of horror. Reimu looked back and saw that in the distance the sky started to turn red.

"Oh hey, they are here already!" she exclaimed again and whistled. "Wow, that's a lot, no less than a thousand strong. Go for it, Yukarin!"

Yukari kept staring at the approaching army, and Reimu left her, almost skipping to the corner of the town square and making it look like she was casting an incantation for the defensive barrier. Yukari helplessly looked at her, then back at the army, then back at her.

"Go for it!" Reimu cheerfully shouted. Yukari shuddered and took off towards the advancing horde of spirits. Her form became smaller, then a pink dot and then was lost on the red background.

Reimu yawned. She didn't consider even for a single moment setting up the barrier. If the horde advances, she would just leave, and the village would fall. All the better, would save her the trouble of killing them all one by one.

There was a commotion inside the partially burnt school, and various minor youkai poured out, led by Keine. Reimu immediately made herself look busy.

From another street ranks of armed humans marched in, led by an old man in a rusted breastplate. Reimu waved her arms, creating a rather convincing illusion of a rectangular yellow spell barrier.

Keine ran in, worry on her face. She pointed at the advancing swarm with her only hand.

"Reimu, this is wrong! You must lure them away from the village, not expect an impact! Satori told me the barrier won't hold!"

"Don't tell me how to do my job," Reimu said without malice. "I am sure it will hold."

"Then at least let me help you!" Keine shouted and got right to it, weaving her own defensive seals into Reimu's illusion. Reimu regarded her efforts with a slight smile. Why did they all insist so much on fighting the inevitable?

She sighed and put a minor real barrier in to maintain an illusion. She deliberately worked much slower than usual, and the barrier remained weak, a patchwork of her own yellow rectangles and Keine's blue and red round shields.

The army of spirits was closer now, and Reimu saw Yukari again, the elder youkai firing for some reason black patches of danmaku instead of her usual multicolored ones. Around her, black gaps opened and closed, spirits disappearing in them.

Reimu lazily put up a few more barriers. In any case she would get out in time, the horde didn't move that fast.

"Get out of the street!" someone shouted from the second floor of the school, and Reimu saw a streak of pale pink there, must have been Reisen. "Get out of the street! Get out or you will all die!"

The humans did not have to be told twice, dispersing and hiding inside the nearby houses after the first shout, and so did minor youkai, rushing back to the school. Keine hastily put up another spell shield and tugged Reimu by her sleeve.

"Reimu, we need to get away, Satori got some new ability, she is able to predict things somehow. I did not believe her at first, but then—"

There was a screech, and a gap opened right above the barrier. Yukari fell out, her dress torn and steaming. She stabilized herself in air and glanced down. Reimu smiled and waved to her.

The army advanced, and there were much more than a thousand of them. Ghosts, shapeless spirits, poltergeists – all of them inscribed, controlled, driven by a single goal. They advanced without ranks or leaders, just pushed forward like cattle.

"Reimu, it is very, very dangerous if we stay. We must get out of the open!"

Keine tugged at her sleeve again, and Reimu frowned. Superstition. Prediction. Prophecy. And now, above all, she was forced into doing the exact same thing she was trying to escape from. What next? She rises up and joins Yukari in her fight? Puts on a mask of hero again, until the mask becomes her face?

Above, Yukari spread her arms, and giant screeching tear split the sky horizontally, consuming nearly a quarter of the advancing horde of ghosts. A giant blue liquid wheel was slowly pushed from the gap, and reverberating bone-rending hum added to the screech. Spirits were being drawn to the wheel and consumed by it.

"Reimu, I know you lost Marisa and grief is clouding your judgment, but please, we must get away! We must—"

"You are noisy," Reimu said and turned, finishing her turn with a slash of the sword. It went diagonally from Keine's right shoulder to the middle of the ribcage, slightly above the heart, the point where Reimu pulled the blade back.

Keine managed one confused look and one spluttering bloody cough before falling back and laying still. Reimu looked at the body with disinterest for a few seconds, then looked up at the liquid wheel.

It spun, gaining in momentum and speed, drawing more and more spirits in. The gap was gone, and Yukari was nowhere in sight. The wheel changed color slowly, blue being replaced by red, like blood staining the water. Its hum turned into wail, and the wheel started to descend.

"Oh, this is not looking good," Reimu muttered.

The next moment the ring burst, and the energy crashed down, tearing through the barriers with ease and turning the village square into a circle of boiling stone.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Reimu groaned, pulling herself to her feet. Her own personal barriers held, barely, yellow and red rectangles crumbling around her. They kept a small portion of clean air inside, as opposed to choking fumes rising up from the stone around, but this air was also extremely, unbelievably hot.

Reimu held her breath and rose slightly higher, clearing the area of smoke with a minor blast of air. Most of the inscribed spirits were destroyed, but the remaining fifty or so continued forward, closing their ranks as they moved.

Reimu rose higher and saw villagers, leaving the shelters, slowly forming an organized crowd, preparing to meet the advancing spirits. Minor paper charms put on armor, on swords, dirty determined faces, and against them – ghostly inscribed claws, tattered gowns, empty unseeing eyes.

Reimu shifted and took her place at the front of the spirits, her sword turning red, crackling with energy of the skittering cycle breakers. The ghostly force landed in front of the human one, on a dirty and narrow street that led to the steaming square.

The leader of the humans stepped forward, and one of the younger soldiers was holding a heavy shield in front of the old man. Reimu made a gesture for the spirits to stop and likewise stepped forward.

"We saw you kill Keine," the old man said. "And I'll skip the unnecessary "Reimu, why?" questions. What do you want?"

"Darkness. Despair. Death," Reimu answered with a smile. "Everything to paint the world black."

The man winced. "Reimu, no offense, but even Yuuka had deeper motivation than this. And she was a murderous protector of flowers, of all things. We are well aware of our chances and are willing to surrender, but you need to offer us something better than "quick death"."

"There is nothing to offer," Reimu said, her words not her own, forming by themselves from inscriptions in the sword. "Men will be put to the sword. Women and children will be executed. Spirits will be purged. Animals will be slaughtered. Everything will be burned, until nothing remains of the land but a black windswept desert. The final cycle breaks, and the world becomes perfect."

Reimu blinked and shook her head. Then even if she did everything right Marisa would not return? And she, herself…

"Ah, I see," the man said, stepping back. "And in the end you will kill yourself, and this "Pazuzu" we kept hearing about for the last month will come and play in the black sand, singing happy childish rhymes."

Reimu wanted to respond, to protest, but a burning wedged inscription formed in her mind, and all her doubts were swept away. The end did not matter. She would have fun, as it was her wish.

"Well, yes," Reimu said, and her smile turned into an insane glee. "Also, look at me, I can fly!"

She floated up, and so did the spirits. They started circling in the air, closing the ring around the humans and preparing to swoop down.

"Well, that's it, she lost it," the old man summarized. "Men, ready the crossbows! The one who manages to… ah, to hell with this, we won't probably even break the outer barriers. Nevertheless, fire away! Show her what humans are capable of!"

And at Reimu's mental command the spirits charged, and so did she, to start the slaughter, to feel the blade cleave through flesh and bone, to hear the screams and gurgles, to wipe the blood off her face, blood that was not her own…

And half an hour later, when the spirits dispersed, to enter the buildings, to dig out the women and children from the basements, Reimu stepped through the doors of the village school, and the windows of the building turned black.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	18. Suspense

**Shard 18: Suspense**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The entrance hall of the school was dark and silent, the only illumination provided by the crimson inscriptions swarming under the surface of Reimu's sword. Her clothes were now completely soaked in blood, and it was starting to feel very unpleasant, as the blood was curdling and Reimu felt like a bucket of paint was dropped on her awhile ago.

Killing the villagers turned out to be no fun at all. Reimu knew most of these people quite well, and every snuffed life brought her snippets of memories, stupid, everyday memories, like how she used to buy bread from the man she just disemboweled, and the bread was usually slightly burnt on Thursdays, always on Thursdays. Or when nearly at the end of the battle a few of the warriors tried to escape, and Reimu saw the spirits devour one of them, and she remembered with unnecessary clarity that his wife kept four cats because she was never able to get pregnant.

Also, few of them even knew how to hold a sword right and provided no challenge at all.

Now, Reimu was at the village school, the last bastion of youkai defense. She expected to be attacked right at the entrance, the combined power of Reisen, Suika and Satori crashing at her barriers, the three working in unison and cursing her name…

But the entrance hall was empty, broken wooden shoe lockers in two rows before her. She had no distractions while she released the location-wide cycle breaker aura spell from her sword, the one Hatate used before. The windows darkened, and the only light source now was red and uneven.

"I am Reimu of the Hakurei Shrine, and I came to kill you all!" Reimu called out, and her voice echoed and faded. Reimu waited a bit, but there was nothing but silence around.

"Oh, come on! This is the only place in the school where you can attack me as a team! I know you are not that stupid to pass up on such an opportunity!"

Silence again, only the reddish shadows flickered on the walls. Reimu pouted and walked forward, idly slashing at the lockers. Behind them was the main school staircase, and it was likewise empty. Reimu flipped an oily food wrapper on the floor with the tip of her sword.

"I know none of you managed to escape, so stop hiding, come down and die like men… rabbits, oni, whatever! Don't make me fly up these stairs!"

Reimu's voice was brash, but she started to feel uneasy. The silence around was oppressing, and without the adrenaline driving her, she started to feel the wet and cold of her clothes, the nearly silent skittering coming from within her sword, the whispers of symbols in her head…

She turned back from the stairs and went to the only other place she could think of that was suitable enough for a proper fight – the spacious classroom on the ground floor. As she approached, she saw a flickering white light coming from under the door and grinned. The school was not abandoned after all.

She lifted her sword and made two quick cuts, crossing the wooden sliding door panel. She then kicked on it, and the pieces fell in. Reimu stepped inside.

In the middle of the room, there was an angel.

An honest to a word angel, a tall armored figure of ambiguous gender, with an obligatory thin feminine silvery face and white feathered wings. It was glowing, floating about a foot from the floor, and was holding a just as obligatory radiant sword in its hand.

"What the f—" Reimu started, but the angel suddenly fired at her, a wide spreading blast of golden orbs followed by streaks of golden elongated bullets. Reimu slightly turned, and the energy went past her. The bullet pattern was haphazard and rather easy.

Reimu stepped forward, and the angel fired another pattern, homing this time. Reimu stepped to the side, cutting the orbs that came too close.

She made it halfway to the angel when she saw it was an illusion, a small winged figure hiding underneath, trembling, reciting the spell card in a terrified whisper. _Sunlight: Sunshine Blast._

"Sunny Milk?" Reimu asked, putting so much disbelief in her voice that it actually shattered the illusion, leaving only the trembling fairy behind. The spell card fired, and Reimu continued to close in, the golden orbs absorbed by her personal barriers.

"Sunny, what in the name of all that is holy are you doing? Did your brain go on a vacation or something?"

She stopped in front of the fairy and reached forward through the origin point of the spell card, grabbing Sunny by the hair. The fairy released a small scream and the spell collapsed in a blast of smoke.

"Answer me," Reimu demanded and shook her hand, causing even more pain.

"I am r-redeeming m-myself," Sunny pushed through clattering teeth. "By opposing you, I shall—"

"Sunny," Reimu said plainly. "You are a fairy. I am the most powerful human in Gensokyo, and I was able to fight gods as equals _before_ I got the full power of the temple of Pazuzu through this sword. You can oppose me about as much as a kitten can oppose the approaching tsunami wave."

"Kill m-me, I am n-not… afraid…" Sunny said. Reimu sighed.

"Sunny, why didn't you at least try to run away? Of course it would still be useless, as I am killing everyone, but it would prolong your miserable life by about twenty minutes. Do you know how much you could do in those twenty minutes?"

"I will not be a coward anymore," Sunny said, her voice still trembling, but much more confident now. "Eirin and Keine taught me that. Survival is not worth it if you give away your soul as a price."

"Right," Reimu said. "That's the most intricate piece of philosophical horseshit I've ever heard from anyone. Sunny, you've reached the pinnacle of stupidity, if you live any longer you may actually start bending space around you."

She gripped the sword more comfortably. "So, any memorable last words? I'd accept, 'Haha, it was a distraction, Suika is right behind you and ready to bash your skull in'."

Sunny didn't answer. She took a long look at the crimson sword instead and closed her eyes.

Reimu waited for about twenty seconds, then shrugged, took a step back and diagonally slashed down.

And killing Sunny Milk, the stupid fairy that always came up with absolutely inane plans, used her powers to shine the light in her eyes when she was tired from work, that one Sunny Milk who doodled on her face when she drunk herself to unconsciousness at Marisa's hospital discharge party… it felt no fun either.

Reimu sighed, twirled the sword to shake the blood from it and went back into the main school corridor.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Reimu returned to the lobby. The school was as before quiet, and she decided to check the second floor this time.

This all wasn't right. The whole building was supposed to be abuzz with fairies, she felt the energy coming from this place before she entered it. It was supposed to be a heated rush through bullets, just like it was during other incidents, when she blasted through Eientei and Scarlet Devil Mansion.

But there was nothing here, only empty trashed hallways, cracks and minor burns on the walls. Only her footsteps and the flickering light from her sword.

The classrooms were empty, doors opened wide. Odd, but there was no furniture in them, no desks or chairs, and if not for wall shelves they could be mistaken for the empty storage rooms.

Passing one of them, Reimu saw a lonely figure at the middle of one such room and stopped.

"Reisen?" Reimu asked in disbelief, walking in. "What, seriously? I could expect such a stupidity from Sunny, not you."

Reisen looked up to her. She looked miserable, her jacket dusty, her skirt torn in places. There was a prominent bloody gash on her right broken ear, and her eyes were so red they looked inflamed.

"I am not stupid," she responded and pointed at Reimu as she usually pointed when preparing to fire, three fingers curled, index pointing, thumb up.

"Yes you are," Reimu said with disdain. "The cycle breaker gives me immunity to everything that affects the mind, and you should know it, you had Wriggle in your custody."

Reisen remained serious. "Is that what the inscriptions that control you told you? They can't protect you from my eyes."

She paused, and Reimu sighed. She idly punted a ball of lint on the floor.

"Reisen, I expected so much better from you. I expected you to come up with some faux-military plan, some stupid name like "S.A.V.E M.I.K.O.", I expected you to at least work together with Suika. And this..."

She trailed off and covered the small empty room with a gesture. Reisen shook her head.

"Reimu, you don't understand. There is a plan, and even if I die, I won't die for nothing. And yes, I did come up with an appropriate name, the name is STOP. Now, fall into insanity of my crimson eyes!"

Her eyes turned red, blood red, and she fired an intersecting spread of pink bullets. For Reimu, the room remained as it was, only the edges blurred a little, as the scribbles in her mind fended off the effects.

"Oh no, I can't see anything, I am at your mercy," Reimu mocked, stepping forward. The danmaku patterns were naturally different and extremely difficult to dodge in such an enclosed space, but Reimu didn't care, slashing the bullets and allowing for others to be absorbed by barriers.

She walked closer, and Reisen jumped back, changing the pattern. Reimu didn't care, she didn't care about the name of the spell card, about how some of the absorbed bullets stung her skin…

It was a disappointment. It was boring, uninteresting, trite. She could have such a fight with Reisen any time she wanted to. It was the last fight, there would be nothing after that, just a corpse would be left, a rotting corpse with a rotting soul. And Reimu had to see, she had to know what was Reisen's ultimate attack, the attack a warrior may attempt only once in life, a suicidal, self-destructive attack after which nothing remains.

And Reimu jumped forward, grabbing Reisen by the shoulder. She leaned in and looked deep into the swirling madness of her eyes, the inscriptions screeching, resisting the flood of insanity, giving in to the visions of insanity, the mirrored insanity of…

…_I am the cycle breaker…_

The sun was shining softly, and all sounds were muted. Reimu was on her knees, and sand was around, a square patch of clean yellow sand. She was six and was wearing a very adult and very uncomfortable outfit of the shrine maiden, the silly detached sleeves always trailing behind her.

In her hand was a tiny wooden shovel, at her side there was a bucket of crystal clear water. She was building a sandcastle, a serious, monumental endeavor, the one she would dedicate most of the afternoon to.

…_the solidifying eternity…_

Two shadows fell on the sandbox, one tall, one small. Reimu raised her head and saw a man, tall as a giant, his glasses reflecting the sun. He was holding a girl of her age by the hand, a girl in a purple hat and dress. Her hair was blonde, tied in a small braid.

"Good afternoon, Reimu-san," the man said formally. "I can see you are very busy, but my employer left me with his daughter, and this experience is rather perturbing for me. So if you—"

"Kouuriin," the girl in purple groaned and pulled her hand away. "Stop saying long words. I'm booored."

The man cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. "Anyhow. Reimu-san, this is Kirisame Marisa, and I promised her that something interesting will happen if I bring her here, so…"

"I'm Marisa, ze~!" the girl shouted, adding a strange suffix at the end. She then jumped into sandbox and examined the castle with genuine interest. "Ooooh," she said in amazement.

…_the finality of death…_

Reimu watched the movements of the newly arrived girl carefully. The integrity of the castle would not be compromised. "I'm Reimu," she said. "I'm a miko."

"Cool, ze~!" Marisa shouted and threw her arms up. "And I'm a witch! I can make stars, wanna see?"

She curled her fingers strangely, and created a spinning yellow star. It hanged in the air between them, twinkling and sparkling.

…_the perfection of stillness…_

The star wobbled and burst, showering the castle between them with sparks. Tiny towers crumbled, the drawbridge collapsed, and the walls have fallen out into the moat.

For a moment, there was silence, and Reimu felt tears coming. She worked so hard on this! All day! And now some stupid girl comes and ruins everything!

"Ehehe, sorry," Marisa said with an apologetic smile. "But now it's even better, ze~! Boom! Explosions are fun! Oh, don't cry…"

"Marisa, you dummy!" Reimu shouted through the tears and whacked Marisa on the head with her tiny shovel.

…_the end…_

…of her childhood memories, all the years as she grew up, all the fights, the fight and victory against Yuuka when she was twelve, everything swirled, without purpose, without any direction, just a mirror of her memories.

"This is your ultimate attack?" Reimu spit and clutched Reisen's shoulder so hard blood came from under her nails. "To show me my first meeting with Marisa? How does that work? What is that supposed to symbolize? What is that even supposed to mean?"

The last bullets shattered at the walls of the empty room. Reisen was backed into a corner, and Reimu loomed over her, pushing her down with her borrowed inhuman strength. The sword pulsated, matching its flashes with the swirls in Reisen's eyes.

"I don't know," Reisen said, and her eyes returned to normal. "I just attacked you, that's it. I am not a genius strategist or a wise all-knowing god, I'm just a lunar rabbit, a soldier. If you expected something else it's your own fault."

Reimu stepped back and lifted her sword. "Of course," she said. "It's all Reimu's fault. Reimu couldn't get all the cycle breakers, Reimu couldn't solve the incident, Reimu got corrupted and refuses to be saved when shown images of her childhood. Reimu is evil, and a monster."

"Pazuzu is a monster, not you," Reisen said calmly. "No matter how many you will kill and to what depravity you will fall, it will still be his crime, not yours. You deserve better than to be his puppet."

"I deserve better than to listen to such high-strung preaching," Reimu said coldly. "Bow before his power, and I will make your death quick and painless."

Reisen spit in her face, but the dramatic impact of the gesture was somewhat lost when the spittle was recognized by one of Reimu's automatic spell barriers as an attack and burned out in mid-air. Reimu chuckled.

"So, this is how you respect me? Or was that meant for Pazuzu? In any case, you are definitely on the next level compared to Sunny. Still stupid, but at least with some guts. Let's see them on the floor."

She took a small step back and leveled her blade for the strike. In her vision, an inscription formed a helpful burning line on Reisen's stomach. Reimu hesitated for a second.

"I don't deserve a better death than Eirin had," Reisen said, her voice still calm. "But I ask you to not kill Satori like this. She suffered enough already."

Reimu lifted the tip of the sword, and the burnt line vanished, replaced by smaller one across Reisen's chest. She turned the sword for a thrust, and it made a dot between the ribs, a point for the blade to easily reach the heart.

"Everyone deserve better than they get," Reimu said and thrust forward.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The school remained as it was, and Reimu was already tired of all the darkness and silence. She created a few yin-yang balls to light her way and walked down the hallways with excessive stomping, whistling a tune from one of the sacred hymns.

The tip of her sword was against the wall, and she made a wavy line with it, the burnt wallpapers coming off like peeled skin. She reached the staircase and slid down on the railing with a half-hearted "Whee!"

A movement in the shadows caught her attention, and she sent one of the glowing balls forward. It illuminated a simple school chair. It was floating a few inches above the ground and slowly moved towards the small school cafeteria. Reimu curiously approached.

"Hello, chair-san," she said with a smile. "Are you symbolic too? Are you a thinly-veiled metaphor for the emptiness of my heart?"

The chair didn't respond, moving silently. Reimu followed, nudging it slightly with the tip of her sword, like a cat playing with the yarn. She created a few more light balls and made something akin of a crown above the chair with them.

"I think we are going to be best friends," Reimu addressed the chair again. "You will be a stoic silent counterpart to my raging insanity. I'll be your Marisa, and you will be my Reimu. I'll do my best to preserve you for a century, and then you will become a youkai chair. We will share lots of tender moments together."

The chair floated, red and white lights playing over its scratched surface. Reimu saw a tiny umbrella carved on it, with two names underneath that meant nothing to her. One of the legs was slightly bent.

They went in silence for a while and entered a short hallway leading to the cafeteria. It was filled with chairs to the ceiling, leaving only a small crawlspace for entrance. The lit chair took its place near the wall and stopped. Reimu waved goodbye to it and continued to the crawlspace.

She considered slashing her way through, but it would only create unnecessary clutter to be melted, so she dropped down on all fours and crawled in.

Inside, there was a true labyrinth, chairs fused together, crawlspaces making sharp turns, inclines and dead ends. Reimu crawled forward, a smile on her face. Now, this was at least a bit unusual and fun.

She slowly approached the entrance to the cafeteria, and she felt a strong smell of sake coming from it. There was no mistake – this was a personal domain of Suika, her chair-fortified kingdom. The oni herself was sitting in the middle of a small clearing, taking swigs from her gourd and munching on something. Reimu made one last turn and cleared from the chair clutter.

Suika looked like she usually did, meaning drunk. Her clothes were covered in dust just like Reisen's were, and the blue ribbon on her left horizontal horn was likewise smudged.

"Oh, Suika," Reimu said sadly, sitting cross-legged in front of the oni. "Suika with her ability to gather things in one place. Too bad it didn't work on cycle-breakers, eh?"

"I tried," Suika responded, her eyes droopy. She was clearly severely drunk. "They don't have weight, so didn't work. Chairs better."

"I spoke to one on my way in," Reimu said. "It turned out to be a more interesting person than you are. Deeper personality, more complex emotions, hidden agendas, everything."

Suika hiccuped and unstoppered her gourd, taking a few large gulps. She offered it to Reimu. Reimu sneered.

"What, is this your genius plan? To make me drunk? Or maybe you wanted to poison me?"

Suika stared at her, looking hurt. She pulled her arm back. "Don't like, don't drink. You're mean."

Reimu shook her head. "Suika, what's the point in all this? In gathering chairs, in making me crawl them, in getting so drunk you can't probably now throw a proper punch, forget about danmaku. Why are you all like that, you, Reisen, Sunny?"

"Why 're you killing?" Suika responded with a question and pointed at Reimu's chest. "If you can walk around, wet in blood, then I can do what I like too. The end, t'is the same, you kill me, I die. Why fight if the end 's the same?"

Reimu rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, stop with this philosophical nonsense! My head hurts from all this! Why can't it be a simple battle, a test of power? Just throw all the chairs at me, punch me, do something! Just… oh, for all that is holy, are you going to sleep now?"

Suika indeed hugged her gourd and started leaning to the side. Reimu stood up, reached forward and grabbed her by the horn, keeping her upright.

"Suika, I can't kill you if you are asleep!"

"Then you're a lousy monster," Suika responded, struggling to free her head and get into the horizontal position. "But don't worry, it'll be all right, P'zuzu will help you. He'll pull the right strings, right strings to his puppet…"

She stopped and fell asleep, still in the upright position. Reimu released her grip, and the horn slipped, Suika curling up comfortably on the floor then.

"Come on, Suika…" Reimu whispered. Tears came to her eyes, and she didn't cry when Marisa was at the hospital, she didn't cry when she saw her dead.

Suika was always like that, coming to the shrine uninvited, drinking herself up to the horns and then curling up wherever she liked with her gourd. She loitered around and never did anything useful…

And now Reimu knew she would have to kill her, and in her sleep no less. And all the chairs around would crash, forming an incredibly silly burial mound. Only there would be a real corpse underneath, so it would not be funny in any way.

"I am not… a puppet…" Reimu whispered, crawling back. The yin-yang orbs remained around the quietly snoring Suika, pale white light creating odd shadows on walls. Reimu kept crawling, blinking the tears away. Pazuzu promised her she would have fun! Why didn't he keep his promise? Why didn't he?

She crawled back to the entrance. A few more chairs joined the collective clutter in the meantime, but Reimu found the one from earlier with ease. She set her sword down and pulled the chair out, holding it by the legs in front of her.

"I am not a puppet," Reimu said, a pathetic smile on her face. "I am not a failure. I am just falling, and there is no one to catch me. There is nothing to hold on to. Will you help me, chair-san?"

She slowly started pulling the legs apart, and the chair creaked, protesting against such treatment. Reimu's smile became more and more bestial with every passing moment.

"Will you help me? Will you help me? Will you help me? Will you help-"

One of the legs broke away, and Reimu threw the chair down. She picked up the sword and started hacking, the youkai steel cutting through wood like it was paper.

"Will you help me? Will you help-"

The tip of her sword went into the floor, and Reimu stopped, breathing heavily. She blinked and looked around in daze. There was light still coming from the cafeteria, the light from the orbs she left there. Reimu raised her free arm.

"I am not a failure," she said and closed her fist. There was a silent explosion of white light around the corner.

And the labyrinth of chairs collapsed.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"Come out, come out wherever you are! Satori! Daiyousei! I know you are somewhere around!"

There was something strange going on with the school. There were noises coming from somewhere below, cracking and screeching noises. Reimu decided to make once more a clean sweep over the second floor and the attic before coming down to the basement.

"Dai-you-sei! Sa-to-ri! Have a decency to come out and attack me both at once!"

The corridor wall cracked, but Reimu paid it no mind. The inscriptions in her head pushed her up, to the attic. There was something there the inscriptions wanted her to do, and she obeyed. Maybe she would finally have the fun she wanted there.

Reimu reached the hatch to the attic and sliced it open. She floated up.

"Sa-to… oh, there you are, all alone in the middle of the room. Big surprise there. Are you going to show me my childhood memories too?"

Satori didn't answer, and Reimu walked closer, smiling and twirling her sword. And up close, Satori looked just like others, grey stains on her shirt and blindfold, her third eye bloodshot in addition to being red.

"Let me guess," Reimu said, tilting her head to the side. "You are going to preach me some nonsense first, then allow yourself to be killed for no reason at all. To make it more interesting, I am going to answer you by screaming names of fish. Let's start this."

Satori made a small smile. "It doesn't matter what you say, really. We have already won."

"Grouper!"

"I have gained an ability to see the future," Satori continued, unfazed. "It's pretty useless, because the future can't be averted in any way. I found it when we were clearing debris in the village and I saw the house collapse."

"Flatfish!" Reimu screamed at the top of her lungs. Satori winced.

"I tried warning the workers I saw to be crushed, but they went in anyway because there was a family trapped in the basement. The only one who made it out alive I didn't see to die in the first place."

"Lamprey!"

"And I saw that Sunny, Reisen, Suika, Yukari, me and you would die today," Satori continued. "But not Daiyousei. That's why she is not here."

Reimu prepared to scream something else, but stopped and looked at Satori. She frowned.

"The spell blocks any escape," she said. "Daiyousei and others are probably in the basement."

Satori released a sad laugh. "Daiyousei and the others are already on the other side of Gensokyo by now. Yukari opened a gap, a normal, functioning gap for them to escape. By the way, did you talk to Reisen? She should have told you the name of our plan."

"Well, yes, she did. Stop Reimu or something," Reimu said, unnerved. There was something odd in the gaze of the single red eye of Satori and her whole demeanor.

"Not "stop Reimu", just STOP. Strategic Terrain Obliteration Procedure."

And as if on cue, there was a deafening crash from somewhere below. The floor cracked, and boiling chaos started filling the corridors of the second floor, chaos full of geometry shapes and liquid spinning wheels.

"We didn't die for nothing," Satori said quietly. "We bought time for Yukari to open a controllable screecher big enough to swallow the whole school. This place shall be our tomb, and yours too."

Reimu roared and jumped forward, crossing the crack. "Tell me how to get out, or I will disembowel you!"

"This is not how I die," Satori responded with a smile. "I will be absorbed into a dark matter wheel, and you will die laughing, crushed utterly by something enormous and gleaming. Fate can not be fought. Pazuzu may have granted my desire, but he will not save me, and he will not save you. Join us, join us in our death, join us in our loss of hope. I accept you."

She opened her arms for a hug. Reimu couldn't look away from the single red eye, it was drawing her in, sapping her strength, her will, her soul. Satori was right, there was no escaping it. Everyone and everything had to die. Had to...

The chaos boiled over to the attic, and Reimu's barriers rose to meet it. The chaos collided with them and they screeched, a sound that brought Reimu back from the abyss of the eye. Reimu looked up to Satori's face and sneered.

"Accept me? You are a failure and a coward, and you will die like a worm. Here is what I think of your glorious "fate"."

Reimu stepped forward and slashed, aiming for the stomach, and the blade cut through, leaving a red line behind it. Reimu didn't wait for the wound to open, she pushed Satori to the side and frantically looked around. In her inscription-enhanced vision a section of the roof glowed, suggesting the way of escape. She rushed to it and slashed in a circle, kicking the section out with her free hand.

And chaos poured in from there too. It clung to skin like blood, like oil, only ice-cold. The barriers around Reimu screamed, trying to absorb the alien energy.

She pushed forward through the hole in the roof. Below her, Satori doubled over and fell, boiling darkness consuming her body, her blood, her screams. The barriers around Reimu partially stabilized, but the school was already far in the void, no less than one hundred paces, the wide screeching gap of light shrinking in the distance.

Reimu pushed herself towards the light. The barriers around collapsed one by one, her own rectangles now replaced by spiral inscription-based ones from the sword. The chaos sucked her in, but she still advanced forward, ghostly fires colliding with inscribed spirals and fading away.

"I will not die today," Reimu growled. "I am not a failure. I am not weak. I am not a puppet, and I will defy my fate!"

She already made it halfway towards the gap, her own barriers long gone, only the inscribed ones still holding. The sword in her hand was blazing, supplying more and more inscriptions to the bubble that granted her survival.

Thirty paces. Twenty paces. She now saw Yukari, standing in front of the screeching reality tear and slowly closing it, her face locked in concentration, eyes darting around the edges.

The sword glowed red for one last time and turned dull and grey. Reimu reached the edge of the gap, grabbed it and only then Yukari noticed her, eyes widening in horror.

Reimu pulled herself over the edge and landed on all fours. The blade in her hand cracked, and the last barriers collapsed.

"I am Reimu of the Hakurei shrine," she said, standing up and walking towards completely paralyzed Yukari. "I defied my fate. It is time to close the alphabet, Yukari."

"I…I am not Yukari!" Yukari screamed, stumbling back. "I just wanted to save everyone! It's not my fault it turned out this way! I'm sorry about everything! I'm s—"

Reimu jumped forward, and in a wide horizontal arc the blade went through Yukari's neck.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	19. Tragedy

**Shard 19: Tragedy**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The spell furnace exploded in a brilliant and silent white flash, the ball of plasma vaporizing the control box, the boiler, Nitori's house and a good chunk of surrounding land. The explosion created a perfect circular crater, and the river rushed in to fill it, quickly creating a new artificial lake.

Nitori herself was looking at all this with an odd sense of detachment, from somewhere above. The world around looked odd, the colors filtered out strangely, and the whole valley of Gensokyo was encased in some sort of multicolored bubble.

Nitori felt weightless. She looked around in confusion, then at herself. Her dress and skin were black, not all the way through but covered in some sort of black liquid film, the wedged symbols of the cycle breaker quickly fading in. Her fingernails became thin, forming needle-like talons.

"This… is not how it was supposed to go," Nitori muttered.

There was a loud click, seemingly coming from all directions at once. There was a blinding flash of light, and the next moment the house below her was intact. Nitori saw herself, running backwards from it.

Then the fallen pyramid in the distance rose up in the air and started collecting beams into itself, flying towards the original site of the temple of Pazuzu. The sun made a reverse arc on the sky, replaced by the backwards moving moon.

Time went on in reverse, and Nitori felt she was being drawn somewhere east, like a metal shaving to a magnet. This was not right, she was supposed to be in control, she was supposed to be the one selecting the speed of reverse, this was not how it was supposed to go!

Nitori tried to move. She clawed at the air, and her new talons elongated, leaving small scratches in the oddly colored mist around her. She tried to reach her house, but the pull of the unseen force was too strong. It drew her slowly, inevitably, and another day went on in reverse. Then another one, faster this time, and the pull grew stronger, dragging her over the Human Village, over the little figures of people, smoke that was drawn into chimneys, the river flowing backwards.

Nitori stopped clawing and turned in the direction where the pull was taking her. She remembered what emergency automatic limits she installed on the machine. Limit of time reversal – the day before the temple was brought in, and automatic homing target for her spirit was Yukari Yakumo of course. She was supposed to talk to her, maybe not in person, by some signs and messages, warning her about the danger of the temple.

But something definitely was wrong, and Nitori now saw strings, barely visible black strings coming out from her whole body, drawing her to some predetermined point in time and space. Another day clicked back, then a few more, faster and faster, and she was only gaining in speed.

She lost control and tumbled in air, trying in vain to claw with her constantly elongating and breaking talons. She caught a glimpse of something yellow in the distance, a spot that drew closer and closer.

A day clicked into night and the time reverse abruptly stopped. The pull was gone too, and Nitori's spirit flew forward on pure momentum, much faster than the terminal velocity of the fall. She managed to stabilize herself, and saw where exactly she was going.

The Garden of the Sun at night, Yuuka and Yukari above the sunflower field, a heated danmaku battle between them. They both looked hurt, and it was time to determine the winner by the finisher spell cards. Yukari was slightly higher, preparing to fire. There was a click, and time went forward.

"—_maku Bounded Field," _Yukari finished chanting, anger in her voice. The spell card bloomed, blue and purple bullets closing on Yuuka circularly, boxing her in. Yuuka smiled and looked up.

"Still holding back? I thought you already designed an improved version. I can dodge this one with my eyes closed."

She indeed closed her eyes, stepping back through the intricate safe paths the pattern allowed, waltzing to the side. The bullets kept closing in on her…

And the next moment the spirit of Nitori crashed into Yukari's body.

The pattern went askew, and the bullets turned black, gaining in speed. They screeched, each bullet tearing a jagged and narrow gap on its path, and Yuuka's eyes snapped open in surprise. She instantly opened her umbrella in defense, but the cluster of bullets tore right through it, shredding her arms, going through the abdomen.

Yuuka screamed and stumbled forward, into the central fluctuating focus point of converging screeching bullets. It happened so fast Nitori didn't even have time to be horrified. The pattern folded in, the scream stopped.

Then the spell card moved to the next phase, and bullets turned normal again, flying out, leaving a small steaming crater, a pile of bloodied clothing and a torn umbrella at the bottom.

The spell card shut off, but Nitori just floated in place, staring at the crater. This was it, she realized, she just killed someone, shredded the body and sent the soul into hundreds of tiny screechers. And the fact it was Yuuka didn't make it better, not one bit.

"I…" Nitori said, her voice trembling, the voice not of her own. "I can still fix this. I can still save everyone else. I need to…"

She looked around in panic. The idol was on the ground, an undamaged, glistening idol, glistening with blood. If she destroyed it now, the chain of events would be broken. Marisa would still be injured and Yuuka would be dead, but everything else would be just fine. Nitori pointed at the idol.

"_Kappa's Pororoca,"_ she recited. Nothing happened, the spell card didn't activate. In her mind, a chained beast howled, a chained beast that was Yukari Yakumo, locked somewhere inside her own body, banging at the walls of her prison.

Nitori's mind raced. This was not her body anymore, she had to use Yukari's abilities somehow. It had to come natural, easy and fast. She pointed at the idol again and traced a line in air with her finger.

A gap opened under the figurine, a small and smooth gap. The idol fell into it, and the gap closed.

"I just destroyed it… right?" Nitori slowly said. She realized how little she knew of how the entire spiral into madness started. Aya and Momiji died, Hatate went missing and became the dark creature… but when and why? And Wriggle became a villain, because of what? Yuuka's death, it was revenge?

She tried to piece the events together, but it was no use. She was way too tired, the previous day was absolutely hellish, Marisa's visit, Orin's sacrifice, then the explosion, a drag through time, now Yuuka's death…

Nitori floated to the ground, sat down and leaned to a particularly thick sunflower stem. She decided to rest for a bit, just a little tiny bit, so she closed her eyes for a second.

Fifteen minutes later, a crow subordinate to Hatate flew over the garden and saw the scene. It rushed back to deliver the news, and on the way spotted a gleam of metal at the edge of the garden.

Two hours later, Hatate was already at the scene, taking shots of the sleeping Yukari and everything that remained of Yuuka. She took the idol with her on her way back.

And an hour after that, Ran Yakumo decided to check on how the friendly visit of her mistress to Yuuka went.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Hell was a real physical location, but the situation Nitori was currently in was a true, torturous reality of hell. If there was a greater punishment than this, then she couldn't think of one.

The body was not her own, and it did not feel like her own. It was more like an exoskeleton she had to consciously control all the time. Yukari's soul was locked somewhere within, a rabid raging force eager to escape. Nitori couldn't talk to her, she couldn't explain anything, she just had to suppress that primal urge constantly. And she couldn't escape from her new body either.

But that was not the worst part. The worst part was that she was the center of attention now, and she had no idea how to act. She suddenly had a loyal guardian, the fox-tailed shikigami staring at her with such intensity she felt being drilled by that gaze. And she didn't only stare, she asked questions, precise, to the point questions Nitori had no idea how to answer. What was the cause of the fight, were there any witnesses, what sealing technique did she use, was she sure Yuuka was not going to return, why she was so sure, what should she be doing now, what, why…

Nitori kept mumbling something, still standing at the edge of the crater, and the crowd around the crime scene grew. Nitori slowly started to get her bearings. She knew she had to act, and the sooner – the better.

"Ran," she called out, her borrowed voice dry and hollow. "Yuuka's death must not become a public affair."

"Yukari-sama, with all due respect, it is impossible," Ran responded. "Rumors will spread regardless, and we'd better give away half-truths than allow the gossip to reach the right conclusion of who the perpetrator is."

"Try your best," Nitori said. What she regretted the most is that she blurted out during one of the early Ran's questions it was she who committed the murder, and there was no way to take it back now. Ran knew, she was confused, and she did not approve one bit.

Nitori kept standing, trying to think of some sort of a plan. It would be logical to take a day or so to adjust to the new body and get comfortable with the new powers, the spell cards. Then, with such power and such loyal servants, it would be easy to burn out the black infection before it spreads.

And she did her best. She showed no emotion when Aya walked into the blasted clearing and started nosing around, and when Reimu visited closer to midday she refused to talk to her, leaving everything to Ran again. Some mistake in a conversation so early on would lead to a disaster.

When the rain started she ordered Ran to escort her home as she, naturally, had no idea where Yukari lived. Ran raised her eyebrow at such an unusual request, but after Nitori assured that she just wanted to fly and clear her head, they took off and made their way to the boundary in silence, an almost four-hour long flight.

And by the time they reached the house, a small building that reminded Nitori of her own home both in exterior and interior, she felt drained and drowsy. She excused herself and crashed on one of the many intricate beds Yukari had.

Tomorrow, she would start her work and save everyone. Save everyone…

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"… ri-sama. Yukari-sama, please wake up."

Nitori cracked her eyes open. To the side of the bed, Ran was standing, carefully nudging her shoulder. She looked worried.

"I'm awake," Nitori said and tried to sit up. The body refused to move as intended, so she managed to do so only on a third try. She made a face that in her opinion would bear authority.

Ran cleared her throat. "I am sorry to wake you up like this, but such news must be delivered without delay. Yesterday, a terrible accident occurred, or rather a murder. On the slope of the Youkai Mountain, the house of Hatate Himekaidou was burnt down, its owner and Aya Shameimaru inside."

Ran paused, awaiting a reaction. Nitori looked around in daze. Did she sleep for more than four days? What?

"W-what?" she choked out.

"Aya Shameimaru and Hatate Himekaidou were murdered," Ran patiently said. "I examined the scene of a crime, there were traces of black magic there. I await your further instructions."

The information seeped slowly into Nitori's brain, and the murk and tatters of a fading dream were being slowly replaced by clear, primal fear. She overslept, as Yukari usually did. Aya and Momiji were dead, and it was too late, three days too late. She killed them, just like she killed Yuuka, with a stupid mistake.

Nitori bolted upright, and Ran recoiled from her. Apparently, she expected to be shouted at, but Nitori didn't shout. In fact, she tried her best to not break down into tears at the moment, but apparently without full control of her facial expression Ran took it for a snarl. She bowed deeply and backed away.

"I am sorry for waking you up over such a trivial matter," she said quickly. "I will take appropriate action myself. You shouldn't be bothered by this. I will do everything."

She finished already at the door and nearly ran away, a smudged streak of yellow tails behind her. She barked something to Chen and they took off in a hurry.

Nitori collapsed back on the bed. The tears didn't come, but she felt like a piece of her heart was just torn away. She failed, she missed the critical point, and Hatate probably had already become the dark creature. She would have to stop her before the attack on the school now, save at least Mystia and the fairies. And she would not allow for the chain of events that would lead to Wriggle's fall to unfold.

Nitori readied herself and stood up. She dedicated the next hour or so to exploration of the house, preparing for the day properly. She found the kitchen, she explored all of the bedrooms, big and small, and found out the whole house was filled with arcane glyphs and technology. She discovered that Yukari was quite vain when it came to her clothing, a whole room dedicated to mirrors, dresses, ribbons and shoes. But despite the change of clothes, Nitori still didn't look presentable, not fully in control of her posture and expression. People would start noticing something was off, and very soon.

She decided to use a gap for travel this time. She tried to grasp the instinct she needed, and found out she had much more difficulty than the last time. It kept slipping, and Yukari inside her kept raging, tirelessly, unrelentingly.

Nitori focused. The Garden of the Sun was the location she visited recently, and the image was still fresh in her mind. She lifted her arm and traced a line, forming a gap. It was not really a flat pane connecting two locations, it was more of a short tunnel, stylized eyes lining the bent walls.

But when she finished the trace and the gap started opening, it suddenly screeched. The edges became jagged, and the eyes were torn away, showing a void of chaos beyond, chaos filled with geometry shapes. The destination remained, a clearing in the garden surrounded by wilting flowers, but the short tunnel became distorted and twisted, the chaos kept in check only by a nearly transparent energy membrane.

And Nitori remembered it vividly, a lecture at a small and dusty reading room of the library, Patchouli leaning at the lectern, speaking in plain, slightly bored voice:

"_Screeching gaps, or "screechers" for short. In simple terms, if you fall into one you are gone, written from reality forever. Nothing survives inside for more than a few seconds."_

Nitori shuddered. She traced her hand back, and the gap closed.

"So, flying it is," she said to the empty surrounding room. "Flying is great. It's good for circulation…"

She took off and started her day.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

A day passed. Nitori explicitly ordered Ran to wake her up every morning and spent her time traveling Gensokyo alone.

Yukari's body was slow. She was definitely relying on her gaps to travel everywhere and never participated in strenuous physical activities, leaving everything to Ran and Chen. And even after Nitori settled down in her new body a bit, it still felt strange and unnatural, the silent howls of Yukari's psyche distracting her.

She traveled and tried her best to do something, but the problem was that there wasn't really that much she could do. Only after the massacre at the school everyone started to take things seriously, and Nitori couldn't just barge into Eientei where Reimu sat days and nights over the hospital bed and start raving about the flying pyramid and the danger the idol presented. What danger did it carry anyway?

There was also a problem with inscriptions. The cycle breaker unfolded inside of her and spread into her mind, sending quiet suggestions at the edge of her perception, suggestions for mundane, trivial tasks, like of how to hold the spoon properly or lift a bucket. Nitori easily ignored and silenced it out, but it was there, a persistent problem she didn't know of how to deal with.

Nitori decided to focus on one task. She would stop Wriggle by destroying the cause of her fall, her obsession over Yuuka, and the obsession was definitely there, Wriggle made a small shrine over the crater, visiting every day. Nitori decided to take it upon herself.

By the end of the day, she figured out that without gaps, she would be useless, so exhausted she was after all the flying. She attempted short travels first, trying to slowly lengthen the distance. One or two times, the gaps turned to screechers in the middle of her short run through the eyed corridor, but she managed to jump forward and land safely every time. It turned out not that bad after all.

There was a critical event she waited for – the first temple explosion. The attack on the school would take place four days after that.

She visited Keine at the village school and told her, without explanation of why and for what purpose, to hide all the history about Yuuka. She visited Marisa in the hospital, the witch so high on painkillers their conversation mostly consisted of Nitori's apologies and Marisa's weak smiles and out of context responses. The visit led to nothing but hurt.

What worried Nitori the most was Ran. The shikigami definitely started to suspect something was odd about the behavior of her mistress. She kept herself reserved and calm, but Nitori started noticing more and more often that Ran was giving her strange looks and often whispered something to Chen when Nitori was out of an earshot. And try as she might, Nitori couldn't think of an appropriate way to tell Ran what was really going on.

In the evening Ran returned, grim and looking like she got into the fight. She told Nitori that she pressed the residents of the Moriya shrine for answers, made a sweep over the whole Youkai Mountain and destroyed a suspicious contraption built by one of the lone kappas. She looked displeased by the fact that it bore no results, and Nitori remained silent. The less said - the better.

Nitori prepared herself. It meant that tomorrow would be the day of the first temple assault, and it was the perfect opportunity to intercept the dark creature as it would try to escape. She ordered Ran to wake her up the next day as early as possible and went to sleep.

She would save everyone tomorrow.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"… the twelfth seal! Chen, hold the twelfth seal!"

Nitori woke up to sizzling of energy and sounds of someone shouting. She was lying on a cold and hard wooden floor, multicolored seals surrounding her.

"She is awake! Faster! Rinnosuke, ready the purging spell, now!"

The one shouting was Ran, and when Nitori raised her head she saw she was inside Kourindou, the curio shop, in the focus point of a triangular pattern of sealing spells. Ran, Chen and Rinnosuke were performing some sort of ritual, mixed colors of magic flashing around.

Nitori tried to stand up, and found out that the spells bound her to the floor, preventing escape. She tried to speak but managed only a raspy whisper.

"Ran… what's happe-"

"Don't listen to her! This is not Yukari!" Ran shouted, and the seal in front of her blazed with shadow energy. "She is possessed by a dark entity, it's not her talking! Rinnosuke, why is the spell not ready yet?"

Nitori helplessly looked around. Chen had trouble with the seals she was responsible for, the energy circles slipping constantly through her claws and Rinnosuke appeared to be deep in concentration, his eyes not visible behind the shiny reflections on his glasses.

"Wait, Ran, I can expl-"

"Don't let her speak or chant anything! Chen, activate pain seals!"

The unimaginatively named pain seals looked like tiny red disks, and Chen threw a handful of them into Nitori's face. Predictably enough, they were designed to incapacitate the affected with pain, but it was not her body, so the sensation filtered and was merely unpleasant. Nitori tried to stand up, and some of the binding spells broke off.

"Faster!"

"If the spell is not completed properly, it will not work, and we only have one try," Rinnosuke said calmly. "You can not rush this."

"Look, Ran, I really can explain, just hear me out. I am not a monster, I just made a few mistakes, we are going to fix this together. We are going to save everyone, just—"

Nitori broke off most of the binding spells and stood up. Chen kept flinging the pain seals, but they stung no more than fly bites now. Ran glared, her glare hateful and cold.

"You killed Yuuka on purpose," Ran said, her voice just as cold. "And I knew her pretty well. We were not exactly friends, but when someone you know for half a millennium disappears forever because of some pathetic possession spirit, it feels… you will never understand how it feels."

"No, please, I-"

"The spell is ready," Rinnosuke announced, flinging a white energy disk to Ran. "Cast at will."

Nitori wanted to scream. She wanted for them to understand, to listen for just a tiny second. It would take less than a minute to explain, and five minutes of questions to clarify everything.

But it would take only a few seconds for Ran to activate that spell, and then what? She would die? Everything she has gone through, everything she worked so hard for – for nothing?

"_Unity of black and white magic…_

Ran started chanting, and Nitori raised her arm. Other binding seals impacted her, but she didn't even notice that. She would save everyone and this stupid fox would not stop her. No one would stop her.

"… _separation of body and sp-_"

Ran abruptly stopped, and her chant turned into a choking gurgle. A thin jagged line appeared at her chest, the line spreading up and down. Nitori emotionlessly traced her hand along the line, and it turned into a gap, splitting Ran in two. There was no blood, no screams or anything, just a narrow gap going up to the head, killing her.

And then the two separated halves fell inwards, disappearing from view.

Nitori remembered little of what happened next. Chen screaming, trying to claw out her eyes, Rinnosuke trying to escape… she didn't remember how she killed them. She remembered using some sort of spell card, black, corrupted spell card, bullets tearing the screechers in the air.

She remembered herself to stumble out of the destroyed and shattered shop. She remembered a quiet voice in her head, a voice making suggestions on how to proceed. Quiet, logical, helpful voice.

She remembered cleaning up, screeching gaps absorbing the rubble, as if the shop never existed. She remembered writing a letter to Marisa with explanations and apologies for unexpected leave from Gensokyo, a letter in a script that was not her own, a letter signed "Rinnosuke Morichika".

And the next thing she remembered was the Garden of the Sun, a picture of Yuuka in her hand, a picture she tore from the tiny memorial shrine, and a small youkai in dirty cloak and pants stomped towards her, shouting "How dare you?".

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Nitori was sinking, the dream drawing her in like quicksand. She struggled against it, and the collective signal of various alarm clocks was the only thing that did not allow her to sink deeper.

She spent the night at the school's attic, taking every portable timekeeping device she could find at Yukari's house. She surrounded herself with them, setting them up to fire in sequence of ten minute intervals. People were unreliable. People would go away, forget to wake her up, see something was odd. They would slit her throat in her sleep. The clocks would not betray her. She would save everyone.

She considered intercepting the dark creature the day before, to catch it before it would get to Keine and rip off her arm, but the attack happened when Keine was on her way home from Eientei, and Nitori didn't know exactly where it happened. She decided to make sure she definitely wouldn't miss the attack on school instead, hence the clocks.

It was easy up until midnight. When she started to doze off, a beep of the first clock brought her back. She sat on the floor, not leaning to anything, and tried to blink and shift around as often as possible, fighting the irresistible desire of her body to shut down.

Then, close to dawn, it became harder. She started to dream, and sounds of alarms became parts of the dream. To that sound she put down fires inside of her house, fought Utsuho Reiuji, stopped mini-submarines from flooding. She ran down concrete corridors of bunkers, blast doors sliding down behind her, she started to slip into Yukari's dreams, alien, strange dreams…

And then, when the pale light from the window indicated the dawn was breaking, the dreams turned into nightmares, swirling nightmares full of something oily and slithering, washing over her, clawing at her, spirals of color, maws, tentacles, eyes…

A screech.

Nitori bolted upright, and the dreams crashed into oblivion. She was wide awake, in complete darkness, only screeching around. Nitori jumped to her feet in panic. She picked up one of the fancier alarm clocks and pushed a button on it, a button with "light" extrusion.

It worked as a flashlight, projecting time on the wall. It read 10:35, and again, it took a few seconds for Nitori to realize what it meant.

The classes have already started, and the dark creature was somewhere below, the whole class as her hostages. She already cast her sealing spell, and it meant that the deaths would start shortly, maybe already started.

Nitori moved the light along the wall and nearly dropped the clock when it illuminated the source of the screech. An enormous gap was spreading, tearing at the wall little by little. It led nowhere, only boiling chaos beyond it, and was covered by a thin membrane, ready to burst any moment.

"No! No! Close up! Close up!" Nitori shouted already on the run. "Yukari, help me! Please, help me!"

No response, only insane howls from the inside. Nitori pointed at the gap with a trembling hand.

"I order you to stop," she said, but the gap kept spreading. Nitori tried to find something, anything in Yukari's instincts that would help.

Not really understanding what she was doing, she reached forward. At the edge of the opening gap a few lining tattered eyes were still present, and she grabbed one of them, slowly and carefully stretching it over, further and further, until it closed the whole gap. The screeches became muted, and the spread stopped.

"I'll be right back to you," she said to the gap. "I will fix everything."

Nitori set the clock on the ground and ran to the attic entrance. She crawled down, closing the hatch behind her.

She made it all the way towards the main staircase of the school when all hell, or rather boiling chaos of unreality, broke loose. And Yukari's nightmares came alive in a very literal and definite manner.

The world resisted the incomprehensibility of arriving chaos, giving it shape at the moment of contact with reality. The staircase erupted in slime, and railings became connected snakes without heads. Shoe lockers vomited their contents out, the shoes quickly growing spider-like legs.

Nitori backed to a wall and found out that it became spongy and wet. She helplessly looked back to where she came from and saw a form there, a betantacled form with the head of a wolf, barely fit into the restrictions of the corridor walls.

"Oh hey there, fellow corrupted one. How does your flesh suit work out for you?"

No, the tentacle wolf didn't speak, the slightly distorted female voice came from somewhere downstairs. Despite her better judgment, Nitori took her eyes off the wolf and turned to the voice.

At the bottom of a staircase a humanoid figure was standing, in a stained white shirt and a purple checkered skirt. She had small molting wings and inscriptions were coiling around her, strangling the spidery shoes and turning them to dust.

A numb thought occurred to Nitori, a thought that the inscribed girl didn't have any skin on her face. Somehow, in view of everything else around, it didn't look in any way out of context.

"So, like, are you the next vessel? I hoped for Wriggle, she has a lot from Yuuka in her. I hoped she would preserve her memory after all. A noble, worthy goal, the goal to sympathize with. What's yours?"

Nitori's thought process ground to a halt. The inscriptions around the faceless girl got to the staircase and started nibbling at the slime, turning it to dust.

"I… I am going to fix everything. I am going to save everyone," Nitori managed to say. The faceless figure chuckled.

"Well, you are doing a shitty job so far. I'll clean this mess up, and you'd better go outside and try to save at least someone. They are at the east wing, in dead end on the second floor."

"I should destroy you," Nitori choked out. "You… you are a villain. If I kill you-"

"Then the chaos will go out of control and Gensokyo will soon be populated by brilliantly intelligent mounds of eyes. Get real, you are a puppet just like I am. Play your role up until the end and have fun with it."

"I am not-"

"Yes you are. Yes you are…" the faceless girl said in a cooing voice. The inscriptions kept eating the slime, and the staircase was mostly cleared by now.

Nitori clenched her teeth. She was not a puppet, and she would prove it. Only Sunny Milk, Daiyousei and Wriggle survived the school massacre last time, and she would defy fate by saving more this time.

Nitori turned back to the wall and traced a gap on it, the gap leading to the courtyard outside. She saw Reimu there and confidently stepped forward.

And half an hour later she crashed on a bed at Yukari's house, wailing, punching at the pillow, tearing at the sheets.

Sunny Milk, Daiyousei and Wriggle survived.

And no one else.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Nitori woke up because water was splashed on her face. No, not splashed, dumped over from a bucket, and the cold felt very unpleasant.

And still she didn't want to open her eyes. What was the point anyway? She was only going to make things worse if she did anything.

"Yukari, you have to wake up, it's a complete disaster!" someone shouted, shaking her shoulders violently. The touch felt likewise unpleasant. "Yukari, the whole Gensokyo is in danger! It's not your average "incident", it's a catastrophe!"

Nitori felt slapped on the face, once, twice. Then the unknown person released her shoulders and stepped back.

"That's it, you made me do it. I am using a spell card. Right now. _Flowery Soul: Gh_—"

Nitori jolted up and opened her eyes. In front of the bed stood Yuyuko, the ghost looking flushed and out of breath. Seeing she achieved her goal, Yuyuko shut off the spell and folded her purple fan.

"The gates to the Netherworld have melted like butter!" she announced dramatically. "A great loss has befallen us, as the Prismriver sisters were caught in one of the unholy beams of devastation! Eientei is utterly destroyed, and so is the vampiric mansion!"

"I know," Nitori said bitterly. "And Orin died to bring the temple down. I failed-"

"Failed, snailed, who cares? Gensokyo needs new gates, twenty minutes ago! Chop-chop, get to work!"

Yuyuko grabbed Nitori's arm and dragged her outside. Below, the whole valley burned, the black wart of the fallen temple in the middle. Nitori looked at all this, trying to hold the tears back. She was just a puppet…

Yuyuko grabbed her by the jaw and rotated her head up. She pointed in the distance, at the ghostly blue shimmering.

"New. Gates. NOW!"

"I am… not Yukari…" Nitori whispered. "I don't know how..."

Yuyuko slapped her with her closed fan, hard. It hurt more than the pain seals did, and it probably cut deep, because Nitori felt something warm and wet sliding down her cheek.

"Now is not the time for jokes. The inscriptions are rising up, if they get there and corrupt enough spirits the cycle of death and rebirth will break and Gensokyo will die. The world will die."

"And that's a bad thing how?" Nitori asked quietly. "It won't be the same anyway. I am a failure, I'll only make it worse. Everything I try fails. I am a puppet…"

She trailed off. Yuyuko looked at her coldly.

"Are you done?" she asked after a long pause. "I am still waiting for 'nobody in the whole world cares about what happens to me' and 'the world would be a better place without me'."

Nitori made a crooked smile. "Would you believe that the second part applies perfectly? If not for me, none of this would have gotten this far."

Yuyuko rolled her eyes. "Yukari, I've known you for a very long time, but even after a thousand years I still don't get some of your jokes, seriously. I'll get Reimu to set up a temporary barrier. Surprise me with the new gates by the time I return, it would be a great punchline to your "I am now uncaring, suicidal and evil for no reason" joke. Bye."

She took off and floated down towards the valley, the wind current picking her ghostly form. Nitori kept staring for a while, then looked up.

Gensokyo burned, and still people didn't give up. They made plans, searched for solutions, hoped for the better days. Nobody ran away and hid from the problems, well, except for Kanako…

That was beside the point. Nobody else did. Reimu was probably somewhere out there, taking all responsibility on herself, Marisa helping her at best of her abilities. Suika, Alice, Keine, they all hoped for the best. Nitori could not allow for all that to be for nothing.

"I may be a puppet," she said sternly. "But I will still save everyone."

She took off and flew in the direction of the destroyed gates.

Fifteen minutes later she ran into a cluster of ten or so corrupted spirits. They attacked, and she destroyed them with a black screeching spell card.

Five minutes after that she realized that she just erased ten or so souls from existence, thus putting the number of deaths she was directly responsible for in double digits.

And when she reached the gates, she saw that there were already hundreds of corrupted spirits there, forming a tight defensive ring around it.

Nitori started crying.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The village square steamed, stone slowly cooling off after the impact of the chaos ring. It was still too hot to step on, and Nitori floated slightly above it, trying her best to not fall from exhaustion.

She reached the gates of the school courtyard and dropped down. Her stomach churned, and she resisted the urge to puke again. Nothing would come out except for bile anyway.

Somewhere in the village Reimu was fighting, or rather slaughtering villagers, but this was way too much for Nitori to handle. She just killed more than a thousand souls herself, killed relying on inscriptions to guide her. Facing insane and corrupted Reimu right away was something she just could not do.

"I am falling," Nitori whispered and swayed in the direction of the school entrance. "Somebody, help me. Somebody, stop me…"

From her perspective, she was here only the day before yesterday, her nightmares still fresh. She could not save anyone. She was the reason so many died. She wished for inscriptions and Pazuzu to laugh at her, but they didn't, quietly suggesting an optimal action to take instead. Grab the railing to not fall. The doors are heavy, better to wait a bit before opening them. There are others inside, act neutral. Maintain an illusion you are confident and strong.

Nitori made her way over to the entrance and pulled at the handle. The door opened with a creak, and she got a good view on the lobby, broken foot lockers and the main staircase.

At the staircase, youkai were sitting in a tight circle, passing a gourd around. Reisen and Suika, Sunny and Daiyousei sitting close, Satori a bit to the side, alone. They saw Nitori enter and turned to her.

They looked in silence and she dragged herself across the hall and nearly collapsed at the bottom of the staircase.

"Help… me…" Nitori croaked. There was a pause, Satori moving her red eye, examining her, and then she stood up and came down to help. They made their way upstairs and sat down, Nitori leaning heavily on Satori's shoulder.

"Want a drink?" Suika offered, but Nitori shook her head.

"If there is water, please…"

There was a pile of snacks on the floor inside the circle, and Suika passed Nitori a small flask. The water was warm and oily, but Nitori was thankful even for that. She set the flask down, and there was a pause again.

"Will she die too?" Sunny asked, her voice full of annoyance. The question was meant for Satori, and she raised her eye again, examining Nitori. The gaze of the eye was extremely unnerving, and Nitori didn't quite understand what was going on.

"She will die too," Satori confirmed plainly after a while, in a voice someone would say "we are out of bread too." Nitori numbly blinked at what was just said, and Sunny threw her arms up in frustration.

"What the hell?" she shouted. "Everyone dies, even Yukari and Reimu do, and this pipsqueak with no spell cards gets to live! How is this fair?"

She nudged Daiyousei on the shoulder. There was no anger or malice in her words and actions, just frustration and hurt. Daiyousei also didn't look happy, looking down and nervously twitching her fingers.

"Sorry, you are probably confused," Satori said, turning to Nitori. "I am getting visions of future, don't know why, probably because of Okuu's eye. They are getting clearer, and when Keine's fate unfolded as I saw, there was no doubt anymore. We are all going to die."

"Except for me," Daiyousei said sadly. "And I thought outliving Cirno was the worst that could happen."

Nitori couldn't find words. She believed everyone would fight till the very end. She believed Reimu would stay by her, even in the darkest hour. She believed…

"We can't give up," she said slowly. "We can't give up without a fight."

"And we must try to save Reimu, yes," Reisen added. "That's exactly what Keine said. She believed and hoped until the end. Truly, she was the best of us."

Nitori felt like she was choked. Keine too? Was there no end to this?

"And it feels so stupid," Reisen continued. "All she has gone through, all the visits to Eientei, all the pain because of her arm, all down the drain. And even more so with Sunny. And even more so with Satori."

"We can't give up!" Nitori shouted. She stood up with difficulty and swayed, but remained standing. "We can't die like this! I can still… save…"

She wished for the inscriptions to laugh. They didn't.

Reisen sighed. "I gave up when Eirin died. Satori – even earlier, when she lost Koishi and humans threw her in a ditch. Suika… I don't know, when did you?"

"When Reimu slashed Keine," Suika answered. "When someone like her falls, there is no hope left."

"It's not you talking!" Nitori shrieked. "I can't believe it! Pazuzu… he… he made you all give up! With his… powers, to make people give up!"

"What difference does it make?" Satori said. "Natural despair, Pazuzu, maybe it was me, draining everyone, it does not matter, the end is the same. I will be consumed by chaos, Sunny dies exactly like Keine, Reisen – instantly, a stab to the heart, Suika – torn apart by explosion, you get your head cut off and Reimu dies laughing, crushed by something enormous and gleaming. Daiyousei and other minor fairies live."

"I will still fight," Nitori said, but the words came out insincere and weak. "I will-"

She stopped. Hatate, the dark creature, she was one of the lower tengus, and she managed to control the chaos spill all by herself, showed power Nitori thought was not possible. Wriggle, a minor bug youkai, awakened the temple and destroyed most of Gensokyo.

Corrupted Reimu could probably kill anyone by snapping her fingers.

"I will save Daiyousei," Nitori whispered.

"It is settled then," Satori said and stood up too. "Daiyousei, gather the others and Yukari will make a gap for you to escape. The gap will be stable, and you will all make it to live another day, probably literally just another day but still."

Daiyousei stood up, still avoiding eye contact. "I am sorry it all turned out this way," she said hollowly.

"Yeah, you be sorry. And alive. And…"

Sunny didn't finish and turned away, tears in her eyes. Daiyousei sharply turned and ran away towards the school basement.

"And so it ends," Reisen announced. "Yukari's presence adds another layer to our plan. Not only we stall Reimu for as long as possible to give Daiyousei time to hide, we also keep her occupied for as long as it takes for Yukari to open the large enough screecher to destroy the school, us and her. Strategic Terrain Obliteration Procedure, we used it all the time in lunar wars. I think Reimu wants to be stopped too. Let us help her, together."

It was not proposed. It was declared with complete certainty, and Nitori knew it was also part of the future already. She would gap Daiyousei, somewhere far enough, she would wait for Reimu to enter the school and then kill the insane miko, with this act saving everyone else.

There were no more tears, no goodbyes. Everyone went separate ways, to spread around the school, to make Reimu search for them, to keep her occupied for as long as it was needed. Nitori left too, to reach the basement where the minor fairies hid when the ghostly army started its approach. Reisen caught up to her.

"Hey," she said quietly. "I saw what you did to the spirits. It's not your fault."

"It is," Nitori responded. "I could attack them yesterday, but got afraid and more were corrupted. It's all hopeless anyway, I don't know how to restore the gates. I can't stop it, and as Satori said, the end is the same anyway."

"Satori is wrong," Reisen said, just as quietly. "I was at war, a lot of people died around me. The end is the same, yes, but what mattered that these people lived and how they lived, not the fact they died. Don't give up, Nitori."

"How…"

"Eldritch unfathomable rabbit powers," Reisen said with a sad smirk. "Also you talk like her, even the voice is similar already. Good luck with your experiments."

Her smirk faded and she left, her broken ears flopping slightly. Nitori remained standing until Reisen disappeared in one of the hallways.

"Everyone who says that disappears forever," Nitori said bitterly.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The sound was beyond screech. It was a grinding howl, reality itself screaming, the horizontal jagged gap tearing further and further.

Inside the school people died. Inside the school an inhuman monster that was Reimu slashed and stabbed, one by one fulfilling the predictions. Inside the school tragedies unfolded one by one, and the end was the same, always the same.

And outside, Nitori tore the fabric of reality little by little, trying to keep her breathing, her heart under control. She had absolutely no idea what she was doing, the screechers were always results of mistakes, normal gaps in which the lining of eyes was torn. What she did to spirits was also an accident, and that gap was only half in size as this one was going to become.

Inside her, Yukari still raged, she never stopped, not for one second. This body was not her own, the power was not her own, but if anything went wrong only she would be to blame.

The gap through which the fairies escaped was so much easier to maintain. She sent them somewhere close to the destroyed Hakurei shrine, into a small patch of a bamboo forest that remained untouched by the beams. She hoped they would be safe there, all the stupid sunflower, grass, waterfall fairies led by a greater fairy that didn't even have a single spell card. Truly, not a lot remained from the old Gensokyo.

The gap reached the required size, and Nitori pulled on it. It moved towards the school, a jagged, ravenous maw covered by a membrane that did not allow for the chaos to escape. It swallowed the school.

Nitori allowed herself to breathe out. Half done, half ahead. And then she would have to rise up to the sky and figure out what to do with the Netherworld gate after all.

The gap slowly started to close, edges forming into jagged lines. The school was moving away into the void, the inscriptions trying in vain to stall the advance of chaos, the building flickering red. It started to break apart, red lights all around it.

Nitori closed half of the gap already, and the shape of the building was no longer visible now, only red swirling lights from inscriptions remained. One of them was brighter than the others, and it seemed closer for some reason. Was it really closer or…

A bloody hand grabbed at the lower edge of the gap, a torn hand, bone visible on the knuckles. A creature pulled itself over the edge, a bloody mess of a human, clothes nearly torn off, hair too, hanging in clumps.

It landed on all fours, a grey cracked sword in its hand. Nitori tried to move but couldn't, she couldn't abandon the gap, it would tear again, it would go out of control, spread, consume the village, then the valley, then…

"I am Reimu of the Hakurei shrine," the creature said, her voice not sounding even remotely human. She stood up and slowly walked forward, her eyes black dots in the pools of blood. "I defied my fate. It is time to close the alphabet, Yukari."

"I…I am not Yukari!" Nitori screamed, stumbling back. "I just wanted to save everyone! It's not my fault it turned out this way! I'm sorry about everything! I'm s—"

Reimu jumped forward, and in a wide horizontal arc the blade went through Nitori's neck.

No, it was not her neck. The sword was just a sword, a piece of metal, and it cleaved through the neck of only the body, not touching the spirit. Nitori took a step back, grabbing her neck in panic, and it was her spirit that stepped back.

Reimu threw her other arm forward, and a cycle breaker leapt on the body of Yukari, her head still attached to the shoulders. The sword shattered, turning into grey useless dust, and Reimu laughed, punching Yukari in the chest.

Yukari's head rolled down. Nitori expected a fountain of blood, but there wasn't any. Then she saw why – there was a small gap around Yukari's neck, connecting to the similar one at the base of her head, the gap supplying blood and air, providing nerve connections through it.

It seemed that the whole world had stopped. Reimu, Nitori, Yukari, for a second they all just froze, Reimu's eyes slowly widening at the bizarre sight.

"I am Yukari Yakumo," Yukari said, her head on the ground. "I am Gensokyo."

The body raised an arm and gaps, normal, smooth gaps appeared around Reimu's wrists and ankles and closed up, holding her in place. Another one opened and contracted around her neck, choking her, not allowing her to speak. Yukari then reached down and grabbed her head by the hair. She lifted it up.

"I know everything that happened," Yukari said. "And Reimu, to say I am disappointed would be a slight understatement."

She raised her free arm, and a gap started opening above her, an enormous smooth gap. As it opened, she spoke again.

"Yuuka wounded Marisa, and I went to the Garden of the Sun to punish her for that. We fought, and she told me she made a wish, a selfish, petty wish on the idol."

The gap opened up, and so did the screecher behind Reimu. Nitori tried to say something, to interject, but she felt absolutely helpless, like watching a series of pictures. It was all too unreal, Yukari holding her own head by the hair, the state Reimu was in, the howls of the gap…

"Yuuka hated you, Reimu, hated you since you first met her, since you defeated her in a fight, since she had to lose to you on purpose because I demanded it. She envied you, envied your status as a hero of Gensokyo while she was branded as a monster. And so she wished for you, Reimu, to become more hated than she ever was, to fail, to fall. That was her wish, and her wish came true. You made it come true, yourself. This is for Yuyuko, bitch."

From a smooth gap, a ship came in, a metal cargo ship. No crew on the deck, no steam coming from pipes, only gleaming metal. It was twice the size of the school, and Yukari rotated it so it would hit Reimu broadside.

She snapped her fingers, and the iron behemoth flew forward, towards helpless and restrained Reimu. At the last moment, Yukari released a gap around her throat, and Reimu laughed, laughed as she never laughed before.

The name of the ship, written on its bow with black, slightly cracked paint was "U.S.S. Cyclops".

It collided with Reimu and went through the screecher, breaking up as it got smaller and smaller. And all that remained of the miko was a bloodstain on the ground and a few scraps of cloth.

Yukari slowly turned and locked her gaze with Nitori, slightly raising the head. Nitori yelped and backed away, so much hate was in those eyes.

"And you," Yukari spit. "It is all because of you, because of your experiments. I think Hell would be way too good place for you, so you will be going right after Reimu. But first, I will show you how easily I could have saved everyone if you just let me. And no, the Hakurei barrier won't collapse right away, I, unlike you, know full well what I am doing."

Gaps restrained Nitori's spirit just like a moment before they did Reimu. Yukari raised her arm and pointed up.

"First, the gate," she said. A small gap opened in front of her, showing the destroyed gate and a few clusters of corrupted spirits around it. Yukari winced slightly, and a thin gap appeared under the molten remains, cleaning them up. A similar one appeared above, and a new gate slid down, setting with a thud. Yukari closed the viewing gap.

"I always keep a spare in such a case, just as I keep eyes everywhere. Nothing happens in Gensokyo without my approval. Now the idol, and our little betrayer."

The gap was choking her, the edges dug painfully into her neck, but still Nitori tried to move. The gap around her right wrist started to wobble slightly.

"The idol is the key to everything, a focus of Pazuzu's corruption. See it destroyed, with the last potential host."

Yukari opened the gap, and Daiyousei stumbled out of it, dazed, lost, frightened. She was holding a partially melted idol in her arms.

Yukari stepped forward and tore the idol away. She swung her arm and threw it into the giant screecher, the yellow dot disappearing in darkness. She then turned and grabbed the small fairy by the wing, her fingers tearing through the delicate film-like flesh.

"Did you already make the wish? What form will your corruption take?"

Daiyousei screamed, trying to break free. Yukari held her, sneering, tearing the wing on purpose and Daiyousei cried, tears streaking down.

The gap around Nitori's wrist wobbled again.

"What wish did you make?" Yukari asked coldly.

"I don't know how to wish on it, Hatate never told us! I just wanted for everything to be like it was before! Don't kill me! Please don't kill me, I don't want to die! Please!"

Yukari pushed her away and pointed. The cycle breaker slid from her arm and onto Daiyousei, the fairy trying to fight off the inscription in vain.

"Pathetic thing, you are. How dare you betray the whole Gensokyo? How dare you betray the land that gave you life? I will-"

The gap around Nitori's right arm screeched and opened. She tore at the gap at her throat, shattering the edges and inhaled, coughing. Yukari slowly turned to her, and expression on her detached head that of surprise.

"You have no power here," she said. "You are just a spirit, a shadow, out of place, out of time. You-"

"I am a monster," Nitori said and raised her arm. "But I have a heart. And you don't."

She didn't know the spell, she never learned it. She never spent hours in libraries, she never researched deep into dark lore. It was just there, inside a cycle breaker, inside the inscriptions in her brain, waiting for the sign, waiting for an excuse. And Yukari provided that excuse, with her sneer, with her arrogance, with her cruelty. With her pride.

A crimson misshapen heart appeared in Nitori's hand in a flash of smoke. It fell through her palm and landed on the ground with a sickening splash.

Yukari blinked. Then she stepped forward and fell, her neck gaps shutting down, losing shape, turning to screechers, widening, consuming her dissolving body. Daiyousei screamed, she kept screaming and tearing at the cycle breaker…

Nitori stepped forward and picked the end of the coiling red phrase with her talons. It squirmed, and she unrolled it, breaking it in the air. Daiyousei stopped flailing her arms and looked, mesmerized, at the fading inscription. She didn't seem to notice Nitori at all.

Then she yelped and looked at something behind Nitori. She backed away and ran, awkwardly taking flight because of her torn wing.

Nitori looked back. The screeching gap where the ship went was only spreading, it was nearly the size of a village already and the protective membrane bent in dangerously. Nitori raised her arms, but the screecher did not obey, only tearing up faster.

"And in the end the world was destroyed because of a fairy," Nitori said bitterly. "Marisa would appreciate such a joke."

The membrane burst, but the chaos didn't pour out this time. Instead, it started sucking everything in, and Nitori was the first one. There was nothing to hold on to so she just allowed the current to take her. Around her she saw stray corrupted spirits, buildings, everything torn up and destroyed eventually.

She was flying thorough the void, darkness around her, the only light coming from the tear in the distance, the tear becoming smaller and smaller as she was being dragged on. She was still alive, as if the polygons were avoiding her on purpose.

She kept moving, and saw more and more shiny cracks in the distance. The world was breaking apart, and Nitori felt her perspective change. The spinning wheels became smaller, then disappeared, only twilight remained, and the world in front of her became smaller too, a multicolored liquid orb covered in cracks.

Her feet hit something, and she stopped moving. The world was in front of her, just a shiny spinning orb. Nitori felt like a giant in front of it, and she started to see her surroundings, a dark plain in darkness, a crumbling tower in the distance.

"Why… am I alive…" Nitori whispered and reached forward, to the cracked spinning sphere.

The next moment the rotation stopped, and the sphere instantly solidified into crystal.

And then it shattered.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	20. Truth

**Last ****Shard: Truth/Lies**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Twilight, stretching in every direction, fading into pitch black. Smooth reflective floor made of irregular anthracite plates. Shards of the destroyed world scattered around, events, faces flashing in them.

In the distance a crumbling spiral tower, rising from the mirrored floor like a broken tooth. And a dark humanoid figure closing in, dragging a leg, four stumps behind its back, its face a misshapen blob with a horizontal slit where its mouth should have been. It hobbled closer and stopped, examining Nitori with its non-existent eyes. The slit moved.

"I am Pazuzu," it said in a screeching, broken, but undoubtedly male voice. "The God among gods."

"We met," Nitori said. She was way too tired to care about anything at this point.

"I granted your desire," Pazuzu said and started to move sideways, circling around. "You wished to become a god, and I made you a god. Nitori the World Breaker, this will be your name. Rejoice."

Nitori looked at her blackened arms, her blackened dress. "I was drunk when I made the wish," she said bitterly. "I never wanted it. My true desire was to save everyone."

"Wishes are not desires. Your true desire was to change everything, the whole world with your experiment, your willpower, and that is what gods do," Pazuzu said, making a full circle. "I granted that, just like I granted the desires of others. Marisa's desire for truly difficult challenges and choices, Utsuho's desire to be smart, to help. Reimu's desire to be punished for her failure as a savior of Gensokyo."

He raised his right arm up, and in a distance a twinkle of light appeared. It became brighter, then gained shape. It was a small multicolored bubble, flowing, undulating. It stopped between Nitori and Pazuzu.

"Infinite worlds are brought into existence by human belief and faith," Pazuzu said and tapped the surface of the bubble with his claw. "Some are big, some are small. Some persist, some fade quickly into oblivion. This one is stable and ready for corruption. Look closer."

Nitori looked into the bubble. It was Gensokyo, but not like she remembered it. It was like a blueprint, like a model made by a child, mountains, rivers, forests – everything sketchy and bland.

Then she looked closer. Everything inside was unreal and hazy, only Reimu, Marisa and Alice looked vibrant. She saw their daily lives, their parties, their bickering…

"It is a love story," Pazuzu screeched. "A time and place where nothing exists but their interaction. Another reality. Another cycle. A book, a persistent thought, a song, a waking dream. A world. And I am the corruptor of worlds. I am the shaper of worlds."

He closed his claws over the bubble. Nitori wanted to stop him, to scream, to tear the world away, but she couldn't move, she couldn't even blink. The talons went in, and darkness seeped inside the bubble. A sketch of a tiny temple appeared within, an unassuming triangle of yellow.

She watched with horror as the bickering between the three escalated. They grew apart, and jealousy set in. Reimu screamed at Marisa, and Marisa vented on Alice. More and more darkness flowed in, starting to darken the sky. Then one day Marisa decided to use a kitchen knife for a whole different purpose than it was intended.

"Stop it…" Nitori choked out.

"I already started," Pazuzu responded. "The world will either stay pure or turn black. Perfection or nothing."

More and more darkness, tainting the sky and the land. Alice found the temple and used some kind of ritual to bring it to life, Nitori could not see the details. The land burned and blackened, and soon only a few flickering sparks remained, going out one by one. Then the sphere turned pitch black, and Pazuzu retracted his claws, a tiny speck of yellow on one of them. The speck blinked and vanished.

"This is how I do it," Pazuzu said. "It is my stage, my puppet show, the temple projects my will, and cycle breakers are the strings I pull. I whisper, and the puppets dance. Sometimes I amuse myself with these little shows, but most of the time I just pour plague in, it is faster. Now I will show you how the world will be shaped."

He turned and awkwardly limped in the direction of the tower, a black sphere in his hand. Nitori followed, drawn by an invisible paralyzing leash. They walked in silence for a while and the tower drew closer.

"Why am I alive?" Nitori whispered. "I was thrown into the screecher like everyone else. I should have died. There is no excuse."

"There is," Pazuzu responded. "This is the void between worlds, and I made it habitable for myself. And you have the shard of my power in you, implanted into your soul during your visit of my temple."

"It was Suwako's power."

"It was my power," Pazuzu screeched, slightly raising his voice. "Mine and only mine. I changed it, processed it, distilled it after you made your wish. You are a part of me, Nitori, and this is why Yukari's gaps screeched. You will color worlds with me, color them black."

They reached the tower, and up close it didn't look that impressive. Only five or so floors, a single spiral ladder inside. They started climbing.

"It is the true tower of Babel," Pazuzu said. "The other gods may have banished me from the core outer world, but I will never stop building. One day I will reach the sky."

"Sorry, I was never that good at obscure history. You should have brought Keine here if you wanted to be understood."

"It is not obscure," Pazuzu hissed, his voice much more screechy and hateful now. "The Tower is a symbol, a symbol of perfection, of unity of all humanity. Millions, working as a one, a single goal – to reach the sky. My goal. My dream. A dream the other gods trampled into dirt."

"It is impossible to reach the sky with a tower," Nitori said calmly. "You'd need a rocket for that. I think Patchouli would build you one if you asked nicely."

Pazuzu didn't respond, but his back stumps angrily twitched once. They kept rising up and reached the top. There was a thin walkway to the unfinished part of the wall, and Pazuzu carefully stepped on it.

"Behold my power," he screeched, and the blackened world detached from his hand. It bubbled, and thin angles appeared on its surface. Pazuzu muttered something, and the world wobbled, flying to the unfinished section. It reshaped into a black irregular brick, fusing with the wall.

"A world… for an ugly brick?" Nitori whispered in horror.

"It was a small, useless world. The more complexity there is originally in the world, the better the brick is. Your own world, if it was corrupted properly, it would become a very robust one. You should be proud."

Nitori fell silent. She looked down at the floor below. How many bricks did he already make? How many would he make in the future? This had to be stopped, right now. Would he die if he was pushed down? Would she die if she fell?

"You will not die if you jump," Pazuzu said, as if he read her thoughts. Maybe he did.

"I will not live like you," Nitori said defiantly, staring at Pazuzu's face. The effect was somewhat lost because there were no eyes to defiantly stare into. "I will not corrupt anything. I'd rather die."

Pazuzu shrugged. "Then die, walk towards the edge of the mirrored plain where the chaos boils. Fall, and be devoured by it. Just don't forget to tell me first."

He turned to the wall, rattling the new brick to see if it was properly attached. Nitori took a step forward.

"If you push me off my tower I also won't die, no matter how symbolic it would be this way. And I can't be killed by the spells I designed, no matter how symbolic it would be this way either. Stop wasting my time."

Nitori stopped. Maybe he really could read her thoughts. Maybe he could turn her into a mindless slave if he wanted to.

Nitori shook her head. It could not just end like this. She had power, and she had to try to do something with this power first.

"I will save everyone," Nitori said sternly.

Pazuzu released a small screeching chuckle.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Nitori sat on the ground and picked up the shard. It was mostly black, only a few lights gleamed inside. She looked closer.

A part torn out of context, held together by a single theme. Nitori saw Marisa as she received love letters, and Wriggle was also in the shard, composing dark rhymes about Yuuka. Little existed beyond that, the interior of Eientei was smudged and blurry, and so was Marisa's house, formulaic, unimportant background to the theme.

Another shard. Wriggle attended school, went to Eientei, then met Hatate…

Another shard. Their first visit to the temple, apples shared, Marisa made a joke about the inscriptions… only Nitori was not there, Marisa was talking to a ghost, a faded image. There was no Nitori in the shards, as there was no Yuuka, Sanae, Patchouli and everyone else who disappeared in the screeching gaps or left the world on their own power. Only vestiges of the memories remained behind.

Nitori held the shard. It was where it all started, and it was where she would start too. She would connect the shards together, she would rebuild the broken world. And then she would find a way to clear it from corruption. And the world would restore everything that was lost using the memories that remained.

"The capacity for the false hope mortals possess never ceased to amuse me," Pazuzu screeched from behind, leaning over her shoulder.

Nitori didn't answer, picking another shard and connecting it to the first. They fused together with a soft clink.

"You are aware that there are literally thousands of shards around here," Pazuzu said half-questioningly. "Collecting them all, every minor chink would take months, maybe even years of true time. Fusing them together, by broader categories, would take even more. And even then you would achive nothing and gain nothing. Absolutely nothing."

Nitori still didn't answer. Two of the fused shards slowly rose up, floating in front of her. Pazuzu released somewhat of a screeching sigh.

"Well, to each its own obsession, I guess. Call me when you are ready to die."

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

How much time has passed? A day? A month? An eternity?

The last shard clicked in place, the last one Nitori found. And there were so many still lost, way too many. Ran's investigation, Aya's funeral, nearly a half of what was between Reimu and Marisa, everything between Yuuka and Wriggle when Yuuka was still alive…

It couldn't be helped. It could be mourned, but it couldn't be helped. The world would have to fill in the gaps on its own. Nitori was sure it would manage.

The world didn't turn to liquid. It remained solid and stained, light flickering where the shards connected. The light inside undulated, playing and replaying the latest events, darkness shrinking and expanding, but never taking hold completely. The last cycle, never broken, but never complete either.

Time could never be changed from the inside. Her machine, her tragic failure – it was all planned, planned from the start by the unseen puppeteer, pulling at her strings, amusement on his hideous eyeless face. It was his stage, his own sadistic show.

And now it was her show.

Nitori waited. Another incomplete cycle collapsed, and time jumped back to the very start, the very beginning. Nitori pressed her black talon to the surface and pushed in.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"Yukari-sama, is everything all right? It took me a while to find you…"

The flickering vestige of Ran Yakumo, the fox-tailed shikigami, or a guardian youkai for short landed to the side of her mistress. Spectral, torn Yukari was sitting on the grass, twirling her parasol and staring somewhere in the distance. The top of the hill offered a good view on the main valley of Gensokyo, and as usual for the late summer the valley looked vibrant and fresh, flower fields creating patches of color on the green carpet of forests.

Cracks, shiny and jagged cracks crossed it, rising up to the sky. Nobody knew where they came from or what was their nature and purpose, and if Yukari knew, she never told. They were just there, as they have always been. They were just as a natural part of this Gensokyo as everything else.

Yukari slightly turned, examining Ran with indifference. The shikigami flinched a little and took her usual pose. She expected to be shouted at, but Yukari slowly turned back to her Gensokyo-gazing.

They spent a while in silence. The wind picked up, a small red ribbon in Yukari's hat flopped a bit and she adjusted it. A cloud covered the cracked and fractured sun.

"Yukari-sama, I am sorry I'm asking, but is something bothering you? You look a bit off as of late…"

"I'm bored, that's it," Yukari said and made a gesture covering the valley below. "Everything is so… placid. Don't you agree?"

Ran tried to find the right words. It was her job and the meaning of her life to protect Yukari from all threats, including the ones the elder gap youkai would invent for herself because of her boredom. An idea that would lead to an "incident" was something she would not want to be responsible for.

"Yukari-sama, if you are bored we could just go and meet some people, talk to—"

"What of that mountain ridge?" Yukari suddenly asked and stood up, closing her parasol. Ran held her pose and glanced at the ridge in question. It was nearly on the horizon, the largest peak being the Youkai Mountain and smaller crags stretching down the western side of the valley. It was just as broken and misshapen as everything else.

"It's… grey, I guess?" she carefully said.

"Exactly!" Yukari exclaimed and rubbed her palms in anticipation. "It's the most boring sight in Gensokyo, so let's renovate! So, any suggestions?"

Ran felt relieved. At least they wouldn't be wrecking any fates today, just a little landscaping. Not that bad after all.

"Yukari-sama, I don't think it would be wise to change it completely. Let's just add a little color…"

And then she stopped. She felt a sudden jab of pain at the back of her skull, like a white-hot nail was just pushed into her brain. She felt like a fish dragged on the sand, a helpless toy of something horrifying and alien. It ordered her to speak.

"Black," she said mechanically.

Yukari chuckled. "Well of course you would suggest black, who would have doubted that, you black, black magic wielding fox. But today I'm just in the mood. So let's do this!"

She spread her arms, and a small gap appeared in front of her. The strange alien feeling was gone as suddenly as it appeared, and Ran saw the reality to tear in the middle of the ridge, something reflective and black slowly being pushed out. It looked irregular and flat, and after a few moments settled in, a tiny cloud of dust around it.

The enormous gap on the ridge closed, and so did the smaller one in front of Yukari. She turned and looked at Ran questioningly, expecting a reaction. Ran blinked a few times and rubbed the back of her head. Yukari kept staring at her, and Ran decided to not bring the subject of her strange feeling up. If it returned then yes, definitely, but at the moment it was more important to keep her mistress happy.

"It looks pretty, Yukari-sama," Ran said, squinting to see what was pulled out from the outer world this time. From such a great distance, it looked like a tiny reflective black mirror.

"Thank you," Yukari said, slightly out of breath. "It was no big deal, I just pushed some natural coal deposits to the surface. I think minor youkai will like the new landmark." She opened her parasol again and sat down, admiring her work.

And the day went on, the residents of Gensokyo unconcerned about the event. Coal was just coal, after all.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Nitori retracted the talon. The cycle went on, and there was no more darkness in it. No temple, no idol, no evil…

Nitori leaned in and hugged the world, feeling the warmth coming from it. Everything went wrong, but still she succeeded, she did everything that was logically possible. Now, all she needed was a little miracle to happen, just a little one…

"Everyone will live," she whispered.

And the world heard her, light darting over the edges between the shards. It heard her and restored them all, one by one, the lost, the maimed, the killed – all of them, restored from the memories of the land. Nitori saw a tiny version of herself, busily working around her house, giving up on the idea of time travel after a first failed prototype. She saw Hatate's and Aya's friendly rivalry, Momiji's patrols, Wriggle, playing with other fairies, her visits to Yuuka's garden. Reimu, always vigilant, always serious and kind, chasing Cirno and the Mischievous Trio around, Marisa, designing something with Alice…

Nitori stood up. She did all she could, she saved everyone. Her dreams came true, and there was nothing left for her. She could of course try to save other worlds, try to oppose Pazuzu, but it was not her power, and it was not her place. Yuyuko joked about it, but she was right. No one would care for her and no one would cry. It was time to die.

She quickly walked away from the unfinished tower, and it disappeared in the darkness. The world followed her like a shiny balloon, light pouring out through the cracks where the shards connected. It lit her way, and she was thankful for that.

She saw the edge of the plain, where the irregular tiles of floor ended. Not abruptly, there were gaps, then larger gaps, and beyond that – once again a swirling chaos of fires, geometry shapes and liquid spinning wheels. The world stopped, as if afraid, but Nitori kept moving forward towards the edge.

"I told you to tell me when you decide to die," Pazuzu said from behind. Nitori turned and smiled.

"I never thought you would care so much. Are you so lonely that you would cling to any companionship?"

Pazuzu's face made a disgusting sucking sound, and Nitori realized that it was laughter. "There is a shard of my power in your chest," he then said. "Give it back."

Nitori demonstratively turned and walked. The floor plates did not connect here, and she had to jump to get to the other one. Then she jumped again, boiling chaos below.

"Give it back," Pazuzu said, and there was clear threat in his voice now. Nitori turned, balancing on a small unsteady tile.

"If you want it so much, earn it."

She turned her arm inward and dug the talons into the right side of her chest. She found something solid and thin inside and pulled it out. It glowed red and purple, a tiny shard of divine.

And then a gust of wind nearly knocked her over. It was howling, piercing, moaning, the searing wind of the merciless desert. It seemed to come from all directions at once, and it tore away the thin film of darkness that covered Nitori's body. She shielded her eyes and looked at Pazuzu.

Pazuzu was hobbling, jumping from a plate to plate, careful, way too careful. He jumped closer, and spread his crooked arms to remain in balance. "Give me the shard," he hissed.

Nitori smiled, twirling the shard between her fingers. Pazuzu followed her movements with his eyeless forehead.

Then he jumped, without warning. Nitori stumbled back, but her heel reached the edge of the tiny plate, and there was nowhere to dodge. Pazuzu landed on the other side of the tile and threw his arm forward, grabbing the shard and wringing it away.

And Nitori pushed forward. It was a weak, desperate push, but it was enough. The lame creature stumbled, and after hanging a moment on the ledge Pazuzu fell, flopping his useless wing stumps, screeching and holding to the shard. The boiling chaos consumed him, snuffing out the screech.

The wind didn't stop, it continued to howl, and grains of sand dug into Nitori's dress, tearing it away little by little. Without the power protecting her, it wouldn't be long before she would fade into nothingness.

She stepped forward, the chaos calling her. Another step, and she was on the edge. Just one more step, and it would all be over. Just one more step, and there would be no hurt, no pain, no tears. Just one more step…

At the plain, one of the tiles exploded up. A clawed arm held onto the edge, and Pazuzu pulled himself over to the solid ground. He straightened up to his usual crooked posture and shuddered like a wet dog, boiling darkness coming off in drops. He then slowly turned.

"I can not be destroyed," he said. "Not by this or anything else. And I will not allow you to defy me."

He flexed his arm, and tiles rearranged, making a bridge for Nitori to walk to safety. A few tiles went vertically up, forming guard rails.

"One last chance to reconsider," he said and waved for the restored world to float closer. "Let us talk as equals."

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

They sat on the ground, the shattered and restored world between them. Wind continued to nibble at Nitori's spectral body, taking away little by little. Pazuzu yawned, scratching behind his wing stump.

"What do you want?" Nitori wearily asked.

"I already told you everything about me," Pazuzu said, and there were much less screeches in his voice now. "It is not about me anymore, it's about you. What do_ you_ want?"

Nitori didn't answer. What did she want anyway? Her wish came true. Her desires came true. Everything she wanted…

Pazuzu chuckled at her silence. "Well of course. You have nothing left now. Your soul was in you obsession, but now your obsession is here, right in front of you, and your soul is not in your body anymore. Symbolically, not literally. But it still feels so empty, doesn't it?"

He raised his talon and lightly tapped on the surface of the crystal sphere. Nitori couldn't stop him, she couldn't even move. She looked down at her arms and saw her fingers were now skeletally thin, cycle breaker symbols visible around the bones.

"I won," Nitori said. It was starting to get difficult to talk. "This world, my world that I recreated from the shards. It is pure, and you can't corrupt it ever again. If you try, it will shatter."

"Why would I want to corrupt something so flawed?" Pazuzu said with genuine surprise. "It was pure before, it was beautiful and flowing, but now it is rigid and disgusting, like a drinking glass that was shattered and glued together, you can't drink from it anymore. The best you can do is to put on a shelf to gather dust."

Silence fell between them again. Pazuzu took the opportunity to pull another small globe from the darkness and started examining it, listening to what was happening inside.

"We are the same," he said after a while and released the globe. "I, like you, was born from the belief of humans, the belief in perfection of evil. Join me, and I will give you a new meaning to your life, a pursuit of perfection that is I."

"You are a hypocrite," Nitori said, and it took her some effort to remain sitting upright. "You always talk about purity and perfection but you, yourself, are a wretch."

"I am perfect," Pazuzu responded, and screeching overtones returned to his voice. "I am a pinnacle of adaptation. I don't need wings, there is nowhere here to fly. I don't need eyes, I use other, superior senses. I don't need to be fast, or strong, or immensely intelligent in this place. And I certainly don't need to justify anything to you."

"You are a liar and a failure," Nitori said and nearly fell over. "The other gods, they… crippled you. And you are now so weak you couldn't even corrupt… one little world. You couldn't even corrupt… me."

For a moment, Pazuzu's face cringed, but then the edges of his toothless maw went up.

"And even when you are dying you still hold on to your pride," he said and stood up, circling the small crystal sphere between them. "Overcome yourself and join me. I am perfection."

Nitori tried to turn to the approaching monster, but all her strength left her, and she fell back.

"Pazuzu… the toothless," she whispered. "Pazuzu… the killer of helpless… Pazuzu… the impotent… Pazuzu…"

And then Pazuzu roared, a screeching, guttural roar. He jumped forward and grabbed Nitori by the neck, hoisting her up and leveling her face with his. In his other hand a shard of power flashed into existence. He snapped it, and it turned to liquid, absorbed into his arm.

The twilight around disappeared, pierced by the rays of a bloated, sickly sun. The plain around spread in all directions, and Nitori saw beyond the crumbling tower, she saw lines of ziggurats, shadows dancing over their white sandstone terraces, she saw endless worlds, drawn to the ziggurats, gathering between them like fat, lazy sheep.

She saw others like her, the ones he brought from the shattered worlds with shards of his power, now his slaves, toiling endlessly, corrupting the multicolored blobs, and every blob was someone's fate, every blob a reflection of a few true worlds he would never be able to touch.

And beyond that was a humongous tower, spiraling up into the reddish sky, slaves crawling over it, and when someone would fall no one would care, but if a brick would fall it would be mourned.

And before Nitori stood Pazuzu himself, a powerfully built humanoid with the head of a hawk, proud in his nudity, bulges of muscles flowing under the bronze skin, four black wings spread royally behind his back.

Then it all faded, and she was again in the damp and dull twilight, held by the neck by a wretched misshapen creature. Nothing remained of the glory, even his grip was limp.

"Only those who are able to see beyond the obvious are worthy," Pazuzu screeched. "And no one else."

"Illusions change nothing…" Nitori whispered. "You are still… a failure. Kill me… solidify your failure… in eternity…"

Pazuzu's face twisted into something utterly incomprehensible, the maw twitching, the eyeless forehead rippling. His hand trembled, and the talons dug painfully into the skin.

And then there was that disgusting sucking laughter again, and Pazuzu's maw formed a smile. He waved his free arm to the side, and a tainted shard of the world jumped into his hand. He pressed Nitori's back against the surface of the crystal sphere and aimed carefully.

Then he stabbed forward, piercing through the heart. There was no pain, it really didn't feel like anything, but Nitori felt the wind change its direction. It was now blowing at her face, and the world behind her clung to her, sucking her in.

"Puppets sometimes seem so lifelike," Pazuzu mused. "It is so easy to forget that they are just objects. And objects do not get to choose, their owner chooses instead. So live, live your dream where you saved everyone, a pathetic broken dream pieced together from the shards of your obsession. Live and remember my mercy, my power, my radiant glory."

"You are a pathetic… slave… to your tower… your own… obsession…" Nitori managed to say. Almost her entire body was now absorbed, only her head was still above the surface. The smile of Pazuzu was gone. He raised his right arm, and a dull curved sword appeared in it.

"I am Pazuzu," he said, cold anger in his voice. "I am the ultimate corruptor. I am the disease, the drug, the worm that eats from within. And you, Nitori, you may have defied me and fate itself, but it doesn't change the fact that you are most definitely, eloquently and utterly _fucked_."

He slashed down, the blade painlessly passing through Nitori's head, and pushed her under the surface. She could see the scowl of the maw for a second, then the darkness above her filled with stars.

She was falling, and managed to turn in air. Below her was Gensokyo, broken, stitched Gensokyo, the lines where the shards connected glowing slightly. She saw a single light in the Hakurei shrine, the Human Village preparing for the flower festival, the Moriya Shrine...

No, there was no Moriya Shrine in this world, just some lights at the top of the Youkai Mountain. And no Scarlet Devil Mansion either, just a crumbling ruin where it should have been. The world didn't restore them, it didn't need to. They lived elsewhere, in other worlds, lived thanks to their own power, knowledge and cowardice.

Nitori saw her own little home, and she saw herself, sleeping on the bed. She kept falling and realized that when her tainted spirit connects with her body that other, innocent and helpless Nitori would die. And when she wakes up next morning she would have to fake a smile, and tell everyone that everything was perfectly fine, and decline spell card fights, because now as much as a slight blow to the head could kill her, destroy her soul. A broken wind-up toy in the world of immortals.

She fell faster and faster, but she could clearly see now how damaged this world was. The cracks crossed not only the land, they crossed the people, youkai, everything. Everything, absolutely everything was in some way incomplete, flawed, less than it was before.

She wished for the impact to kill her.

It didn't.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**


	21. Victory

**Victory**

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

The Hakurei Shrine has always been an uninviting, run-down building. Even after being destroyed and rebuilt several times, it quickly returned to its usual crumbling look and demeanor, white cracks crawling over the walls like jagged vines. Yet another mystery of Gensokyo that would never be solved.

Well, if one would want a logical explanation then Reimu Hakurei, the one and only priestess of Gensokyo, would provide an ample one by being extremely lazy when it came to just about everything.

At the moment, she was lying on her back in the shrine courtyard, moving her arms and legs to create an angel imprint with dirt and dried leaves instead of snow. Ten or so similar imprints around indicated she was doing this for quite some time already.

"Whee!"

This happy shout came from the bamboo forest around the shrine and a broom-mounted girl in black and white outfit flew over the courtyard and landed, skidding, next to the donation box, dropping a coin into it at the end of her movement. She then turned to Reimu and grinned.

"Hey, Marisa," Reimu said, not turning her head and sounding sleepy.

"Oh, come on, don't be such a dead fish, ze~. It's a beautiful morning, let's go somewhere, stir some trouble!"

Reimu groaned and Marisa pouted, made her way to the prone miko and leaned over her, blocking the rays of the cracked sun.

"I'd understand if you were sick, but I know you are just being lazy as usual," Marisa said. "And as of late, your usual attitude is starting to make _me _sick, it's like you've become a satori-type emotion feeder."

"Whatever."

Marisa tugged Reimu by the sleeve. "Come on, Reims, it will be fun, I promise. The coal deposits Yukari pulled out have some cool caverns underneath, we might find a diamond a size of a puppy!"

"There are no diamonds in coal," Reimu said wearily. "We'll just get dirty."

Marisa raised an eyebrow at the state Reimu's clothes were already in. She released the sleeve and stepped back. "How about going with me for old times' sake, then?"

"Old times? I don't remember doing anything meaningful with you. We hang out, we drink tea, but when something serious happens, accident serious, it's always a spell card fight, you against me. Against, not together."

Marisa struck a pose. "Really? Then how about starting it today? I need someone to watch my back, these caverns may be dangerous. I might fall, scrape a knee or worse, sprain or break something."

"I don't care," Reimu said plainly. Marisa paused.

"You... don't?"

"Well yes, I don't care. I worried about you when we were twelve, but you always bring your injuries on yourself, and I can't worry all the time. It's not healthy."

Reimu said this with the same bored expression and Marisa frowned. "Some great friend you turned out to be," she said and turned away.

Reimu lifted her head slightly. "Don't be so overdramatic. You'll be fine, we both know it. Yes, sometimes Yukari brings in dangerous things, but even if something happens Eirin will patch you right up, she always does despite her sour attitude. Now leave me alone, I'm busy."

"Busy doing nothing?"

"I am creating art," Reimu said and spread her legs, slightly accentuating the lower part of the dust angel. "You can't imagine how draining this is for me."

Marisa's face contorted in anger, she wanted to shout, to curse, to wish Reimu some ill fate. She didn't, taking off in the air silently instead, mounting her broom on the go. She blasted off, on purpose creating a gust of wind that destroyed the dust imprints.

Reimu didn't bother getting up. Marisa would get over it, and besides, there were more complicated problems to ponder at the moment.

Like, for example, why the greater fairies, Sunny Milk and Daiyousei in particular, were so deathly afraid of everything that had to do with the term "Hakurei" as of late.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Marisa went for an obvious choice and flew towards Nitori's house. After all, it was on the way and it always took Alice ages to prepare all her dolls and spells. And even then, she was still a source of never ending complaints.

Marisa landed on the porch of the house and noticed the front door to be slightly open. Strange scraping and screeching noises were coming from the inside, and it meant that Nitori was probably working on something at the moment. Marisa put on her best smile and knocked at the door, throwing it open immediately after that.

"Hello, ze~! It's a beautiful morning outside..."

Marisa realized in what state the interior of the house was and stopped.

The house was a mess. No, not like her own, when things just pile up upon themselves, not the mess experiments and works in progress produce. It was a chaos of destruction, the result of pointless rage, everything scattered, shattered, broken, overturned tables, oil on floor and windows, gears and sharp blades stuck in walls and ceiling.

And in the middle of it all Nitori was sitting on the floor, sawing with a circular saw a knocked-over grandfather clock.

Nitori turned, her gaze unfocused, and looked at something behind Marisa. She smiled, her smile strange, like she was not fully in control of her face.

"You are almost whole," she said slowly. "I am so happy."

"Uh... yeah, me too," Marisa said carefully and stepped forward. "Nitori, you... really should pay attention when you use power tools."

Nitori didn't turn back to the saw. "Do you like the sound? The screech that destroys time itself. Tick-tock-screech. The sound of the cycle break."

The saw went all the way through the mechanism and stuck into the ground, stalling. It shut down, and Nitori turned to it, a curious look on her face. Marisa made her careful approach and up close she saw that Nitori's arms were full of splinters and bleeding, red blood instead of water coming out of the cuts.

Marisa cleared her throat. The whole situation was bizarre, bordering on horrifying, and she didn't know of how to proceed or what to say. In the following pause, Nitori pulled up the saw and pushed the button on the side of the device, starting it again.

"I don't blame you for anything," she said. "Pazuzu controlled you like he controlled me. Time can not be changed, and it can never be taken back once it is gone..."

She trailed off and started to saw the clock again.

"Nitori, no offense, but you talk crazy and you are obviously not okay. Do you have a fever? We should get you to the hospital. Here, let me take this from you."

Marisa carefully leaned in and pushed the button on the saw. Nitori didn't resist, and Marisa took the saw away. She then put her palm on Nitori's forehead. The kappa indeed had a fever, high fever at that.

"Guess what," Nitori said with a strange chuckle. "I no longer care if a human touches me. Maybe it was my true desire after all, to overcome my shyness. Totally worth it. All of it totally worth it."

"Sure," Marisa agreed, but then again, she would agree to anything at that point, just to get Nitori to stop talking. She tried to pull Nitori up and the kappa complied, swaying unsteadily, so Marisa supported her weight.

"Let's get you to Eientei. Eirin will fix you right up," Marisa said, mostly to reassure herself.

"Of course she will, she'll fix me good. Like she wanted to fix Wriggle, she'll jam a nail into my brain and I will feel all better. I will be calm, and happy, and will not bother anyone anymore."

Marisa clenched her teeth, trying to ignore the comment. Nitori had a fever, that's all. People talk like this all the time when they are feverish.

They left the house and Nitori stopped, panting. She coughed, a weak, shallow cough. "Won't be long now, probably a week at most," she said.

"Oh, come on, it's just a flu," Marisa said with a false smile. "Nobody dies in Gensokyo from the stupid flu."

"I will not die," Nitori said and looked to the sky. "He does not control me anymore, but he will not allow me to die. The symbols in my head no longer guide me, they just swarm, stinging and poisoning me, bringing me closer to insanity with every bite. Only one instruction remains intact, an instruction to live. I think he is laughing right now."

"Sure, sure, he is laughing, whatever you say. Let's fly, Nitori, Eirin will fix you up."

They took off with difficulty, and Nitori looked back at her house.

"Good luck to me," she whispered. "Good luck with my experiments."

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

"Round and round it goes, where it goes, nobody knows," Tewi said with her usual lisp.

"Aw, come on! What time is this already?" Hatate shouted. She was sitting in front of Tewi for a good part of an hour now, and no matter how thick and comfortable the carpet in the lobby of Eientei was, the novelty has worn off long ago.

"One hundred and fifth. Four more losses and you die," Tewi answered seriously.

"Yeah, right," Hatate said with sarcasm. "What, the rabbits are going to, like, devour me? Stop being so creepy and let me in. Left."

"Nope," Tewi said, flipping the cup. She then showed that the ball was under the central one. "Three more losses and you die."

Hatate resisted an urge to pull at her hair. This was just torture, she tried guessing in a row, she tried the same cup over twenty times, but Tewi won every single time. She started another round.

"Why do I even have to go through all this? I'd bet you let Aya in without any of this nonsense."

"Aya gave up and then got to Eirin through the window," Tewi responded, moving the cups with untraceable speed. "But this is not how you win. Hitting me in the face is not how you win. Praising me won't help. Shouting won't help. You just have to watch where the ball goes. Round and round it goes…"

"Look, Tewi, I need to take this interview, I really need to. It's not everyday something like this happens, please."

"Begging won't help," Tewi said and stopped the cups. "Guess."

"Right."

"Wrong," Tewi said with an evil smile and turned the cup, revealing nothing. "Two more losses and you die."

"Tewi…"

"Tewi, Tewi, Tewi," the rabbit mocked her. "You are slow, Hatate, and you can't win. And even if you win your column will be the same as Aya's, because Eirin will tell you exactly the same medical babble she told her."

She started moving the cups. Hatate bit her lip, nearly to blood. There had to be some way…

"And do you know what happened to Nitori? Can you give me an interview?"

"Only if you win. And if you don't, you will die," Tewi said and stopped shuffling.

"Center."

"Nope. One last round and if you lose, well, you know."

She revealed the ball under the left cup and started again. Hatate helplessly looked around.

The lobby was spacious, and they were not alone. Around, rabbits were sitting, most of them white, on the floor, chairs and low tables. They all stared, their strange rabbit eyes looking almost alien, their ears moving alertly and their noses twitching. A dreadful thought occured to Hatate, a thought that the rabbits would indeed devour her.

The cups stopped. "Choose," Tewi said.

"But… I was not looking…"

"You don't have to see to know. Where is the ball?"

Hatate shut her eyes tightly. She knew the answer, she already won before, even though she never played with Tewi. It felt like it happened in a different life, they played and she won, her prize an interview with Eirin and a small box of knockout powder she promised to use for a harmless prank.

Hatate opened her eyes and reached forward. Her pointing finger traced all of the cups. The ball, it was… it was...

"Left," Hatate said and with a strong, confident motion knocked the right and center cups down.

Silence took hold of the room. The cups were empty, and they silently rolled on the carpet. Tewi remained sitting, rigidly upright, not blinking. Smile slowly crept on Hatate's face.

"The ball is in your hand all the time, Tewi," Hatate said, keeping the triumphant smile. "After I choose, you put it under another cup. Rabbit powers, sleight of hand, I don't know how, but you do that. And now you have no choice but to put it under the left one. The cheater fails, and the winner takes it all. Show me the ball."

Tewi didn't respond right away, and there was a long moment during which Hatate clearly and vividly imagined a swarm of rabbits closing in on her like a tide of white maggots.

"Yaay!" Tewi shouted, bursting into applause, and all the rabbits did the same. "You guessed! Just remember, don't reveal it to anyone, it's a huge trade secret. Swear your life on it."

"Yeah, I like, swear," Hatate said in relief, and Tewi indeed lifted the cup, presenting a ball to her.

Tewi put the cups away, and some of the rabbits went away on their business. Hatate pulled out a notepad.

"You promised an interview. I won, so cough up the saucy stuff," she said with a grin. Tewi's face darkened a bit.

"Well yes, I did, but… oh fine, I'll tell you, it won't be a secret for long anyway. Marisa brought in Nitori yesterday, claiming she "acted odd". And let me tell you, our favorite kappa is beyond odd, she is a true basket case."

Hatate scratched behind the ear with a pen. "Really? I talked to her a few weeks ago, she looked normal enough."

"Oh trust me, she's anything but normal," Tewi assured. "First, we put her into a normal ward. She broke the window and started arranging the shards into a circle. Then she took one and started cutting the bed, cut herself too. When we tried to put her to sleep it didn't work, all Eirin's meds didn't work, it's like injecting her with water."

Hatate stopped writing and looked up. Tewi didn't look like she was joking, not one bit.

"And then, when we did a thorough medical exam, that's where it got really bad. Her right lung is rapidly degrading and her whole body is inscribed from inside, Eirin never saw anything like it. We are expecting Alice to visit today, maybe she will make some sense out of it."

Hatate's hand slightly trembled, but she controlled herself. Nitori was just her neighbor, nothing more.

"And the cause?" she asked, trying to sound professional. Tewi snorted in disdain.

"Well, the cause is that she "experimented" with some drugs and mushrooms awhile ago. She fried her brain, she damaged her lungs, and now she spews nonsense about worlds within worlds and gods beyond gods. Well, that's a part of it, where she found an ancient curse is a whole another matter."

Hatate fell silent. Tewi waited a bit, then changed her pose and started to pick her toes.

"I am not printing it," Hatate said after a long pause. "Nitori may not be my close friend, but a headline "Stupid kappa fries her brain" is going to offend a lot of people. And kappas."

Tewi looked up and smirked. "Then how about, "A genius stumbles, all of Gensokyo rushes in to support"? We are not giving up on her. Reimu will try some rituals, Marisa - spells, Eirin will try some new stuff… we'll bring her back somehow."

"Well, that's a bit reassuring," Hatate said and stood up. "I'll still talk to Eirin though, I need some medical babble for my column."

"Sure," Tewi said and pointed at one of the rabbits. "She will lead you to her."

They went to the corridor entrance, and Tewi turned. Something kept nagging at her, something at the edge of perception, a forgotten memory, a forgotten detail. Something about Hatate, something she should have had, a quality, an important part of her, a part that was missing.

"Hey, Hatate, didn't you..." she called out, unsure of how to word it. "Didn't you have that... thing, yellow rectangular thing, cell... phone? You used it to take pictures..."

Hatate stopped, tense, and looked at her right wrist, a strap around it, a strap ending in nothing. She blinked and shook her head.

"No," she said. "Aya has the only camera in Gensokyo, it always has been like that. That's why I'll never be a better reporter than her. But hey, at least I won against you, this has to count for something, right?"

Her voice turned bitter at the end. The minor rabbit called for her and she continued forward, disappearing in the depths of the mansion, crossing a white jagged crack on her way.

Tewi sighed and gathered the cups. She held the tiny reflective ball to her eye, examining the distorted reflection of herself and the surrounding room. For a fraction of second the image flicked, showing the burning and melting walls, writhing and silently screaming rabbits.

"And even if you win," Tewi said into space. "The cheater still gets to keep the ball. To play again, with another victim."

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

Yuuka Kazami was in a foul mood, and had plenty of reasons for it.

The flower festival she hated so much took place earlier that day. She petitioned to Reimu again, she visited the village the day before the event and scared some of the people off, but it was really the most she could do. The village belonged to humans, and Yuuka could not just start killing people left and right, just as she could not kill the village guardian. It would lead to Reimu burning her garden.

The Garden of the Sun was not in good shape either. Here, there was particular abundance of cracks, spreading radially from the single point close to the center of the whole site. The sunflowers were beset by a streak of various diseases for the whole summer, and Yuuka ran off her legs to keep it all together and not allow the whole ecosystem to collapse.

An annoying and persistent intruder appeared in the garden as of late, some minor youkai barely above a fairy in power. She appeared to be searching for Yuuka and called her name often when she visited. Yuuka ignored it at first, but the youkai kept returning, again and again, and by the time of the festival Yuuka has had it just about enough.

And on top of it all heavy rain started close to evening, and it was an unnaturally cold one for the season. The ground was soaked, and rain drops rang hollowly when they hit the surface of the umbrella. Not that it helped much, Yuuka felt damp and unpleasant regardless.

Yuuka sensed the intruder long before she heard her call out. This minor youkai definitely had to be insane to consciously search for her, and the fact she did so in such weather was a final excuse Yuuka needed. If that pest had a death wish, she was all too glad to fulfill it.

Yuuka floated in the direction of the calls. For some reason, the small youkai was not flying, trudging through the sunflowers with difficulty instead, and Yuuka decided to wait for her on the next small clearing. She straightened up and gave herself a menacing look.

The intruder stumbled into view. She looked miserable, cold and dirty, her soaked cloak trailing in the mud, her antennas limp. She noticed Yuuka and stopped, her expression a mix of disbelief, shock and hope.

"Yu... Yuuka?" she said, her voice trembling.

"For someone of your station, it is Kazami-san."

The light of hope in the eyes of the minor youkai died. She hung her head. "You don't remember me," she said glumly.

"Why, I do, I know you. Wiggle Nightbug, a bug youkai from the Forest of Magic. A pariah and disgrace of our kind because of her weakness."

"It's Wriggle," Wriggle said, and this time she sounded hurt. Yuuka rolled her eyes.

"Well _excuse me _for my mistake. Gensokyo is big, and I think I am allowed to not learn the names of every scum and bottom feeder out there. Now, you were searching for me, you probably think you have something important to say. Say it."

Wriggle didn't raise her head, the rain drops disturbing her antennas. "Is that how you see me now? A scum and a bottom feeder?"

"Yes, because you are. Stop wasting my time and tell me what you came here for."

Wriggle turned away. "It's nothing. If you don't remember, you won't understand, and I won't push it. Maybe it was not meant to be from the start. I will leave, and I won't bother you again. Goodbye, Yuuka."

She took a step. There was a flash, a blur of red, and Yuuka appeared in front of Wriggle, grabbing the antennas with untraceable movement. Her lips cracked into a cruel smile.

"No, no, don't leave just yet, stay. Let's talk, have a friendly chat. How was your day? Mine was awful, I feel so down. Entertain me a bit, make me feel better."

Yuuka twisted her wrist and Wriggle screamed, grabbing the hand, trying to pull it away from the sensitive antennas. Yuuka regarded the vain efforts with the same smile.

"You think it's just a game, don't you. You trespass, you bother me, you show no respect. In times of old, it was punishable by death."

Yuuka released her hand and drove her knee into Wriggle's stomach. The scream was cut off, Wriggle fell, gurgled and vomited. Yuuka sidestepped, her smile unchanged.

"In my domain I enforce my own rules," Yuuka declared and gestured around. "And I am a very old-fashioned youkai. Painfully so."

"You are not... Yuuka..." Wriggle managed to say. "The Yuuka I knew would never-"

"Oh really, do tell. Tell me about this "Yuuka" of your delusions, the perfect image of me in your head, that one Yuuka that would never hurt you. Tell me all about your obsession."

Wriggle wiped her mouth and looked up. "Not delusions, memories, memories I've kept through shattering of the world. Not obsession, love, love I kept through-"

Yuuka stepped on Wriggle's leg. It broke with a sound of a rotten tree branch.

Wriggle screamed, a howling scream of pain, the scream that never escaped the clearing, the sound muted and dispersed by the rain. Yuuka kept her smile, pinning the writhing youkai to the ground. When the screams subsided a little, she spoke.

"Wriggle, you are insane. I heard rumors about the kappa that went insane, but she at least kept it all to herself and didn't bother anyone. You, on the other hand, are an annoying pest, a weed to be removed, and, excuse the quality of the pun, an insect to be crushed."

Wriggle gave her a look full of pain and tears. "A villain that gloats... over the helpless is nothing but a weak... insecure bully..."

Yuuka's smile grew wider. She theatrically flipped her hair back.

"Goodness gracious!" she exclaimed, her voice so full of sarcasm it could warp wood. "You got me! Using power of psychology, you bared my soul to the world! I am just an abused child grown up! Oh, I am so vulnerable and alone, shunned and despised for what I am. I am just like you, we are the same! I love you! Let us kiss!"

Yuuka leaned in and, still smiling, bit into Wriggle's face. She thrashed her head and tore into the flesh, destroying almost the whole cheek.

Then she stood up and gulped down. Luminescent yellow blood was all over her face but she didn't care, her smile just as it was, an upward generic arc of teeth. Despite the pain, Wriggle tried to say something, but the blood collected in her throat and she gurgled and coughed instead.

Yuuka closed her umbrella and lowered her arm, pointing at Wriggle.

"You will die," she said, and at the tip of the umbrella a tiny point of strobe light appeared. "And you will stay dead, because this particular type of beam distorts and scrambles the souls of those it hits. Only the finality of death gives life value and meaning, and nothing else."

Wriggle coughed out the blood. She propped herself up on an elbow and leaned towards the origin point of the beam.

"Then kill me," she spoke with feverish clarity and drive. "Kill me and prove that you are wrong. Prove that you are weak, a coward way too afraid to let anyone close to her heart. Prove your shallowness, your inability to listen. Prove that you are not Yuuka, but Pazuzu wearing her skin and voice."

Rain fell, cold and heavy rain, way too cold for the season. Water slid down Yuuka's face, her smile frozen and unnatural, the viscous yellow blood being washed away. Below her, Wriggle was holding to the broken leg, spitting blood from the hole in her cheek, staring at the flickering point of light with pain and defiance.

"I am a predator," Yuuka said, her voice cruel just as her smile. "Predators kill to feed, and I kill to feed my psyche, to reaffirm my identity. Without that I would wither and fade away like so many youkai I knew. Without that I would stop being Yuuka Kazami. Pazuzu, whatever it is, has nothing to do with what is going to happen next. Die."

The point of light burst, bringing into existence a brilliant white beam. There was a short scream, and nothing remained of Wriggle but a misshapen ash imprint on the ground.

Yuuka opened her umbrella again and snapped her fingers. Thin, weak grass pushed through the ash, and the clearing became just as it was before.

And Yuuka's smile likewise remained unchanged, as if nothing happened at all.

Just as if nothing happened at all.

**({\}o{ })**

**({}/\{})**

An idol floats through the void, slowly rotating in silence. It is damaged, intricate carvings on wings gone, the face is an unrecognizable lump of molten bronze.

It moves, untouched by the chaos around, through the fires and sinister geometries, through the liquid spinning wheels. It moves, on and on, silently moves, wings spread, right arm up as if in greeting. It has no direction, no purpose, it just moves, because life is in movement. Life is in change, in flaws, in impurities.

A clawed black hand reaches out and catches it.

The idol shifts, straightening up and gleaming. The carvings are restored, and stylized muscles appear again. The face returns, a beaked, crooked face with sunken eyes.

The clawed hand traces its talon along the base of the figurine, and wedged inscriptions are forged anew, blazing for a second before turning dull again.

The idol is not important, it never was. It is just a shape, a weight, an object of worship. And in truth only words are important, words of the ancient alphabet, words of ancient power.

He is Pazuzu, the God among gods. Born on the true world, banished into the void, he still lives, through scribbles of madmen, through cults, through ancient texts and ancient idols, through memories of his perfection. He still lives, and he is still building the tower of Babel. And it will never be finished, because it is a monument to futility, the ultimate symbol of pointless effort.

He is Pazuzu, the shaper of worlds. Infinite worlds are before him and he corrupts, to forge new useless bricks. And sometimes he amuses himself with little shows, pulling the strings made of words and quiet suggestions, enjoying the little tragedies and dying screams. And if the strings break, if all sources of corruption are found and destroyed, then the world is flooded with plague and made perfect regardless.

Speak his name thrice and he will grant your desire, first taking everything you hold dear away. If your desire is foolish he will mock you. If your desire is pure he will twist it. If your desire is born of evil he will give you a chance to shine, to be his puppet. And he will always grant it, even if you will be long dead to appreciate it.

Nothing at all in exchange he requires. Every wish, every recital of his name brings more darkness into the world. But darkness is just an absence of light, and his true color is yellow, the color of sucking quicksand, the color of pus and bile, the color of hate. And once he starts he never stops until the world is perfect. And another brick takes its place.

The idol is set to the ground. Around it a new ziggurat is slowly erected, raw chaos shaped into sandstone, into traps, inscriptions, winding labyrinths to bait the unaware, to pique the interest of explorers. A special lure set into the worlds where a show is about to start. A piece of cheese in the mousetrap.

The temple will be ready and the idol will shine, good as new, ready to be taken away. The inscriptions will be deciphered, and someone will say "Pazuzu" thrice. And Pazuzu will hear, taking interest, beckoning for the world to float closer with his right arm held up as if in greeting.

Another hero falls. Another cycle breaks. Another world reshaped. Another brick to the tower.

Another victory.

The End


End file.
